LARRY AMPONSAH
Larry Amponsah (b. 1989, Accra-Ghana) received his MA in Painting from the Royal College of
Art, London (2018) after studying for an MFA in Chinese Traditional Painting at Jiangsu
University China (2016) and gaining his BFA in Painting at Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana (2015).
He is a multi-media artist whose practice investigates traditional modes of image-making whilst
employing unconventional strategies of production to look at the contemporary politics of
imagery. Amponsah has been experimenting with the transformation of archival material, both digital and printed images, which he assembles in collages that are further worked upon using mechanical processes (printing) and his honed skills as a conventionally trained painter.
In 2020 he began his foray into portraiture, exploring the canon of portrait representation in pre-
Modern European painting whilst, in turn, alluding to collaged aspects of Post Second World
War portraiture by African American artists such as Romare Bearden. His strategies have
recently included print on canvas on which he intervenes with paint, referencing characters
inspired by his West African upbringing, developed further within a greater Black global
narrative.
Larry Amponsah is an Associate Lecturer at the Camberwell Collage of Art – UAL. From 2018-
2020 he was a Trustee of The Kuenyehia Art Trust in Ghana, was shortlisted for the 2019
Dentons Art Prize and won the Be Smart About Art Award in 2019. Recent solo exhibitions
include: ‘When A Stone Cracks, We Don’t Stitch’, 50 Golborne, London (2019); ‘The Open City
of Many Gods’ Billboard, Bloc Projects, Sheffield (2019) and ‘Imaginary Direction of Time’, Fine
Art Gallery, CSU-Pueblo Hoag Hall, Colorado (2018). Recent group exhibitions include ‘DEAR’,
Dyson Gallery, RCA Battersea, London (2019); ‘DAMNED IF I DO… DAMNED IF I DON’T’ for
Open Space’s: Of Hosts & Guests, Pushkin House, London (2019); ‘FBA Futures Exhibition’,
Mall Galleries, London (2019); ‘SURGE’, East Wing Biennial 13, Courtauld Institute of Art,
London (2018); ‘YOUNG GUNS’, Sulger-Buel Lovell Gallery, London (2018); ‘Open House
CCA’, Delfina Foundation, London (2017); ‘What is your local word for ‘Smile’?’, ArtXanady’s
Pop-up Gallery, Labone, Ghana (2016); and ‘The Gown Must Go To Town’, Museum of Science
and Technology, Accra (2015), amongst others.
