Arts, Culture and Sport

Ghana: Meet sculptor Kumi Samuel whose work has won the hearts of many

Social media was inundated with the images of the works of immensely talented Ghanaian sculptor Kumi Samuel, carvings remarkably good that they resemble living beings. This Is Africa caught up with the artist, whose Facebook page is @SculptureMadeinGhana.

Published

8 years ago

April 19, 2017

Socrates Mbamalu

In one of Kumi Samuel pictures where he is moulding the figure of a woman holding a gourd, the woman has a headscarf, and is dressed in a traditional attire with a smile on her face. The sculpture is so good that for a moment you can almost ask yourself if this was how God made humans in his own image.

Completed clay work by Kumi Samuel. Photo: Facebook/SculpturemadeinGhana

Samuel was born in the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana, and currently works in Kumasi. After completing his Bachelors in Fine Arts, obtained from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), he went ahead to do his National Service as a teaching assistant in the same school at the department of painting and sculpture.

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Work in progress Photo: Facebook/SculpturemadeinGhana

The artist’s clay works and carvings are found in different parts of the country, his most famous work is the 26ft by 44ft wall mural found at the KOFCANS Hotel in Obuasi. What makes his work stand out is what Samuel calls the “realistic rendition of subject through which he seeks to revive the indigenous/cultural and ethnic subjects with a global and artistic discourse.”

Sculpture by Kumi Samuel Photo: Facebook/SculpturemadeinGhana

Kumi further states, “In making great projection of the future, the past becomes an arsenal of asserts and an inevitable archival reference necessitated by the present.”

The artist strongly believes that experiences that remain to remind man of what is lost are quite important. Kumi uses his work to interrogate traditional ideologies, mythologies, proverbs, and cultural activities that are lost or seem to be diminishing from the society.

His eye for details can’t be missed Photo: Facebook/SculpturemadeinGhana

Through his art, Kumi seeks to preserve some of the cultural activities that seem to have lost their cultural relevance with the hope that such preservation would remind people of their culture and ancestry.

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Currently working towards his first debut solo exhibition called “The Redeemed,” Kumi seeks to portray his childhood memories. His inspiration for his sculptures comes from Sub-Saharan Africa figurative sculptures, which he says offer a lot in terms of style, technique, and process. He combines this with the western classical realist sculptures and creates what he calls Afro-hyperrealism.

Kumi’s work continues to be widely celebrated on social media.