Getting more women into male-dominated industries has become the nucleus of public debate in many industrialised countries.

Statistics about women in art can be discouraging; it is estimated that only 5 percent of works featured in major permanent collections worldwide, were created by women. Thankfully, things are changing! And the future seems to be in good hands; young women artists are also at the forefront of the contemporary art scene.

As part of the Memphis in May’s international salute to the Republic of Ghana, Contemporary Ghanaian Artist, Theresah Ankomah presented a solo exhibition titled ‘Where I Come From’.

The artist marries the techniques of painting, printmaking, and weaving to create bold and colorful works of art that reflect her origins, confront gender norms, and highlight processes of making. Theresah’s layered, tactile work invites curiosity, paralleling the complexities of the weavings that she incorporates into her practice.

Through a time-intensive process, she also combines painting, patterns from everyday objects, silkscreen, collaging, stitching, and weaving to create dynamic multimedia works on canvas. Through the artist’s vibrant, large-scale creations, ‘Where I Come From’ explores themes of family, temporality, gender, geopolitics, sustainability, consumerism, and material history.

Theresah Ankomah is a two-time graduate of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology with a Bachelor of Fine Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture. Her work has been exhibited widely in Ghana, Europe and Dubai.

‘Where I Come From’ marks Theresah’s debut exhibition in the United States and expected to be impactful with great experience with art enthusiasts. She was also part of ‘Those Beings Be Not Being’ Exhibition Curated by Julia Gyemant and Nantume Violet, Alpha Nova Galerie Futura in Berlin, Germany with Dorothy Akpene Amenuke (Ghana), Sheila Nakitende from Uganda, May 2022.

Theresah was the first runner up for the prestigious Kuenyehia Art Prize for Contemporary Art in 2017 and the second runner up for Gallery 1957’s inaugural Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize in 2021. Examples of her works are held in permanent collections in Europe, Asia, and her home country Ghana.

Theresah’s art has appeared in a number of exhibitions both home (Ghana) and abroad featured in several international publications.