Deep Observation
By Nii Anyetei Ras
2022 – Mixed media
187 x 116 cm | 6.1 x 3.8 ft
artist
Nii Anyetei Ras
Bio
Erasmus Anyetei Odoi (Ghana,b. 1989) produces paintings that radiate confidence, boldness, and represent the desire of Africans to speak and compel attention through visual narrative. This visual voice creates awareness in the black societies in the world: that people of color can also make it through, shed what others think about us, and concentrate on our talents gifted from above to change our societies and the world as a whole.
He is an alma mater of the very famous Ghanatta college of art and design which has produced talents like Amoako Boafo, Serge Attukwei Clottey, Kwesi Botchway, et al.
After graduating from Ghanatta College in 2013, he had his first exhibition in 2015 at the former Novotel hotel in Accra. Since then, Erasmus Anyetei Odoi(Nii Anyetei Ras) has had group exhibitions at the Kotoka international airport arrival hall 2017, Panafest Ghana.
As an artist Nit Anyetei Ras is not bound to movement, styles, or techniques. Rather, his emotions are manifested in artistic creation and emotional surges from within. Nii Anyetei Ras does not merely mirror societal realities. Instead, he engages and challenges realities. “I always dare to confront through art, the realities that confound society. For me, art is a dream, a vision, and a transformative system of human expression.”
About this new series
“This current series of art pieces I am producing is the greatest task I have ever taken in the field of art.
The merits that come from it benefit not only my buyers (collectors) but also my community in which I come from and the world as a whole, through waste management. 85% or more of the mediums used are from popular nylon plastic waste that has a lifespan of five centuries or more and can be found on a daily basis in trash bins of households and market areas all around the world.
The process involved in production starts from going to places like cold stores, Food joints, shops, wholesales, and households to gather the plastic waste which is mainly used for binding boxes. Washing and drying them follows. I then enhance some selected ones with color and weave them into the forms and shapes needed to compose them into beautiful pieces the world will cherish forever.
My vision towards creating these pieces is making my possible best in changing the world (helping in plastic waste management and at the same time creating smiles on the faces of art lovers who relate with my vibe) through my flow of life which is art.”
Exhibitions
2015 Novotel hotel in Accra
2017 Kotoka international airport
2017 Panafest Ghana
2019 Africa Contemporary Art Gallery, Hamburg, Germany.
2017-2018-2019-2021 Chale Wote art festival.
Highlights
2022 commissioned by the president of the republic of Ghana and His team for an instant portrait of former president of south Africa Nelson Mandela to be gifted to unto the south African dignitaries at Nelson Mandela’s 100 years celebrations which was held in Ghana at the Labadi beach hotel 2018.