Atta Kwami

Born in Accra, 1956. Died in Loughborough, 2021.
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Atta Kwami was a prolific artist: painter, printmaker and art historian deeply rooted in his cultural heritage. He pursued his studies at the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. In 1992, he married painter and printmaker Pamela Clarkson, and the following year, he undertook a printmaking course at the Royal College of Art, London, through a Commonwealth Scholarship. During this period, he created 'Grace Kwami Sculpture: an Artist's Book,' a tribute to his artist mother, Grace Kwami. In 1999, he crafted the African Archways, an installation situated in Jeevanjee Gardens, Nairobi. In 2007, he earned his doctorate in art history from the Open University. In 2013, he published his book: Kumasi Realism 1951 - 2007: An African Modernism. Throughout his career, he received numerous awards, including the Philip L. Ravenhill Fellowship at the Smithsonian Museum in 2010 and the Maria Lassnig Prize in 2021. At the time of his passing, he was working on a public art commission for Serpentine Galleries, London.