Winner of the 2017 Kuenyehia Art Prize revealed

After a rigorous judging process, Isaac Opoku came out triumphant as the winner of this year’s Kuenyehia Prize for Contemporary Ghanaian Art. He was crowned the winner at the awards ceremony held on Thursday, 6th April at The Octagon, Accra Central. Theresa Ankomah and Andrews Torsu were named 1st runner up and 2nd runner up respectively.

The impressive jury presided over by acclaimed artist and scholar Professor Ablade Glover, comprised Dr. Dorothy Amenuke, an artist and educator at the department of Painting and Sculpture, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(K.N.U.S.T.); Rania Odaymat, a curator, artist and stylist; Karim Ibrahim, an entrepreneur and collector; and South African artist Richard Scott

The Prize is an initiative of the Kuenyehia Trust for Contemporary Art that aims to further highlight the growth of the art ecosystem in Ghana. The founder of the prize, Elikem Kuenyehia said “it is great to see diverse artists in the third instalment of the prize. All the finalists are winners having come this far but we are truly proud of Isaac Opoku for achieving this accolade. We hope to see more outstanding artists in Ghana’s art renaissance.”

Aside winning prize money and art materials valued at GHS20,000, Isaac Opoku along with all the shortlisted artists over the three seasons of the Kuenyehia Prize stand to benefit from personal development and business coaching which is a core objective of the prize. This season’s development sessions will be spearheaded by management consultant, Ruka Sanusi and UK based artist, curator and BBFA Collective founder Enam Gbewonyo.