CAM is excited to welcome Rufai Zakari to Columbus for a visit.  Accra is one of our sister cities  and we hope that he will be the first of many artists to come our way.  Stay tuned for details concerning a solo exhibition by the artist later this year.

Rufai Zakari is a Ghanaian artist living in Accra. He is a graduate from Ghanatta College of Art and Design and completed his apprenticeship under Mozzay in Nima. He is an environmentalist as well as an artist, whose work addresses the issues of consumerism, pollution and the legacy of colonialism in a Post-Industrial society. His practice incorporates his community and celebrates its everyday heroes. The plastic materials used in his work are gathered from the neighborhood, many provided by bins outside his studio. He cuts, weaves and sews the recycled plastics to create colorful portraits of inspiring people in his community. The resulting works are full of joy, flattering his muses with style and grace. The beauty of African, specifically Ghanaian culture is celebrated with his bold, flat, deep skin colors contrasted with bright backgrounds merging fine art and craft through a thoughtful play of materials and commentary.

Zakari’s work has been exhibited internationally with recent shows with the Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in Berlin (2022) and London (2021), Gallery T293 in Rome (2022). He has been included in numerous recent group shows in galleries and at art fairs: The Breeder Gallery, New York, Global Positioning, Public Art Fund, New York, Boston and Chicago (2022); Entre-acte, Selebe Yoon, Dakar, Senegal (2021); More is More: Visual Richness in Contemporary Art, Akron Art Museum, US (2021); 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, London (2021); Devil’s in the Detail, Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2020); This Exhibition is Untitled, Nubuke Foundation, Accra (2020); “CirculArt” Sustainable Art Exhibition by Eco Reward, Casa Trasacco Accra (2019); World Behind the Horizon, Gess Gallery, Dusseldorf (2019); Sustainable Art Workshop, Merck Foundation, Dubai (2019). His work is in prominent collections including the Arthur Lewis Collection, Easton Capital/John Friedman Collection; Nubuke Foundation and the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, among many others.

Jared Thorne’s photographs of the 26 Planned Parenthoods in Ohio are featured in ArtForum Magazine “A Quiet Chronicle of Ohio’s Human Rights Battleground” by Ian Bourland from July 27, 2022.

“In 2015, there were twenty-six Planned Parenthoods in Ohio, and Jared Thorne photographed each one. Over dozens of weekends, the artist drove to every corner of the state, setting up a large-format camera and using 4×5 chromogenic film to create his spare, desaturated images. Many were made on Sunday mornings, the only time that anti-choice protesters would leave the site, presumably to attend church services.” Ian Bourland

Erika b. Hess did a recent interview with the founder of New Visionary Magazine, Victoria J. Frye, where she talks about her paintings and her path. Click the image below to read the article.

Hosted at the Camargo Foundation, the BAU Institute Residency award supports mostly American artists working in the visual arts, film, performance, and writing on a secluded campus in Cassis, France. Kira Nam Greene was fortunate to receive this award and spend time abroad this summer.