Frederick Ebenezer Okai
Born 1986 in Ghana
Frederick Ebenezer Okai is a multidisciplinary artist based in Sunyani, Ghana. Frederick's practice is largely experimental and takes the form of sculptural, installation, video, sound, virtual reality and augmented reality, exploring the plastic possibilities of his primary material - clay. Guided by his quest to seek ancestral wisdom, Frederick embarks on extensive journeys, delving into Ghanaian traditional repositories of knowledge; by tapping into the rich tapestry of cultural, historical and the archival. As a pseudo-ethnographer, Frederick's practice highlights indigenous Ghanaian pottery making, and pays homage to women artists who have long maintained the practice over decades without recognition. In his praxis, clay becomes a repository of stories, a silent witness to the past while confronting contemporary concerns. His practice interrogates themes such as coexistence, spatial relations, and form.
His interest in the revolutionary potential of form informs the rigorous techniques he employs by breaking, welding, stacking, painting, spreading, stitching, and shifting familiar imagery to forge artistic possibilities that create new knowledge founded on ample dose of good old play.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2024- 2022
Silent Invasions: The Art of Material Hacking, Amasaka Gallery, Masaka, Uganda
2022
Participated in Live Session of Kelas Bareng (Joint Class), Collaboration between educational institutions Gudskul (Indonesia), Staedelschule (Germany), blaxTARLINES KUMASI (Ghana) and Nordland knustog filmhøgskole (Norway), Documenta 15, Kassel
GASTHOF 2022, Frankfurt
2019
Umstand der Dinge: a State of Affairs, Hamburg
2015
From Earth to Market, Faculty of Art, KNUST, Kumasi- Ghana
2011
Dynamism and Diversity: Simulation and Simulacra, Great Hall, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
Earthy Structures and Contingent Breakthroughs, Gyamadudu Museum, Kwabre-Heman, Ashanti Region, Ghana
Light Soup, Old Tech Sec, KNUST, Ghana
ARTISTIC EXPERIENCE
2021-2019
Projekt-Supervisor & Architekt (floor construction), Akutia: Blindfolding the Sun and the Poetics of Peace, A Retrospective of Agyeman Ossei (Dota), Red Clay und Savanna Centre for Contemporary Art (SCCA) Tamale, Ghana
2020-2019
Projekt- Supervisor; Galle Winston Kofi Dawson: In Pursuit of Something ‘Beautiful’ perhaps... [A Retrospect], Savannah Centre for Contemporary Art [SCCA] Tamale, Ghana
2019
Curator, Enter the Trons, an art exhibition by artist Afrane Akwasi Bediako, Ceramics section (KNUST) - Ghana
2018
Project Coordinator; Spectacles Speculations, Venue: Ablade Glover Hall (blaxTARLINES KUMASI project space], KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana. Curated by Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh
Assistant Coordinator; African Modernism: The Architecture of Independence, organized by Goethe Institut in collaboration with blaxTARLINES KUMASI and Ghana Museum and Monuments Board. The Kumasi show
RESIDENCIES AND FELLOWSHIPS
2018
Ofkob Artists Retreat/Residency, Venue: Institute for Research, Advocacy& Training (INSRAT), Oyarifa, Accra, Ghana
MEMBERSHIP
blaxTARLINES: Project space for Contemporary Art, Kumasi - KNUST
