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DELA ANYAH

by AFROBUTYLISM STUDIO
(GHANA)

Dela Anyah’s multifaceted practice examines the history and decomposition of discarded objects within local vulcaniser shops, exploring rebirth and identity in a body of work that includes sculpture, installations, photography, painting and film.

Oscillating between memory and fiction, he weaves together multiple narratives that are based on Ghanaian popular culture, current and historical media accounts, and his own ongoing observations and encounters with vulcanisers in his native Ghana. The visual iconography of vulcaniser shops and scrap yards—stacks of worn tyres and inner tubes, mounds of vehicle wreckage, and scrawled signage on the bodies of damaged cars—forms the core of his practise. In the middle of what appears to be chaos, Dela muses about concepts of value in relation to our existence as humans.

Anyah was an artist in residence at the Noldor Residency in 2022. The next year, he came in as Second Runner Up for the Kuenyehia Prize. His work belongs in the collections of Sir David Adjaye (New York, London, Accra), the Institute Museum of Ghana and the Isshaq Foundation in Accra, Ghana.

Selected solo exhibitions include: Nubuke Foundation, Accra (2023), The Noldor Residency, Accra (2022)

Selected group exhibitions include: Institute Museum of Ghana, Accra (2023), Mitchell- Innes & Nash, New York (2023), Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen (2023), Latitudes Online (2023), The Mix Design Hub, Accra (2023)