{"id":430483,"date":"2026-01-26T08:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T08:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430483\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T08:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T08:23:09","slug":"gideon-appahs-dreamlike-paintings-arrive-at-n-y-c-s-pace-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/430483\/","title":{"rendered":"Gideon Appah\u2019s Dreamlike Paintings Arrive at N.Y.C.\u2019s Pace Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tGideon Appah<\/a> is giving a tour of his studio on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana, meandering through room after room, each lined with canvases in various states of progress. There\u2019s a yellow sketch of a drummer boy dressed in masquerade regalia; another unfinished work of a woman lying on a beach blanket; and a third of a ghostly, abandoned building. Appah prefers to paint in batches. \u201cI use the energy of one work to confront the other,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThen he arrives at a part of the building that houses works from his former studio, which went up in flames in 2020. Many pieces were lost entirely, and these rescues\u2014coated in sooty residue\u2014may be beyond salvaging. But like the mythical phoenix, Appah has clearly risen from the ashes. In 2022, he signed with the mega-gallery Pace, and an exhibition of his new work is on view at the New York flagship<\/a> through February 28.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Blue<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBlue Pool, 2023, oil on canvas.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDamian Griffiths<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the past, Appah has plumbed memories of his childhood home, paged through old family photo albums, and researched newspaper archives for images of dancers and acrobats from the years immediately after Ghana achieved independence in 1957, all in search of material for his paintings. For this latest group, he found contemporary inspiration in the coastal town of Takoradi. But the thread running through all his subjects is Ghanaian culture.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019m actually using the present to confront the past and the past to confront the present day,\u201d Appah says.<\/p>\n

\n\tHis distinctive style developed out of an interest in depicting water, especially figures in the sea. Initially he relied on acrylics, but they weren\u2019t giving him the desired effect. So he started experimenting with oils, which proved to be more fluid. Eventually, he arrived at a technique that begins with multiple layers of acrylic, followed by layer upon layer of oil. \u201cI like the process of dripping paint,\u201d he notes. \u201cYou add a lot of depth. It makes the painting very luminous on the surface. They look glazed sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"House<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tHouse with an Empty Pool, 2025, oil on canvas.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRobert Glowacki Photography<\/p>\n

\n\tAppah often punctuates his images with a strong color\u2014orange or ultramarine blue\u2014to provide what he describes as \u201csome kind of magic.\u201d He is also known for rendering figures in stark-white swimsuits. When asked why, he admits with a laugh that he has posed the same question to himself, but \u201cI just can\u2019t really figure out why.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAppah has been drawing since childhood, when he would use charcoal, often directly on the walls of his grandparents\u2019 house. His father was living and working in the Netherlands. \u201cBy the time he came back, I was already grown,\u201d he says. But his mother supported his creativity, and Appah received his B.F.A. from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana, in 2012.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe also became an astute student of the commercial art<\/a> world, using his phone to keep abreast of international galleries. Among the \u201clittle steps\u201d he says he took to get noticed: joining Black Star\u2014an incubator for young artists\u2014and participating in group shows in Ghana and South Africa. Gallery 1957<\/a>, an influential contemporary-art space in Accra (and now London), gave him what was to be his breakout exhibition in 2019.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Detail<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDetail of Night Catch (Prise de Nuit), 2025, oil and acrylic on canvas.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Pace Gallery and the Artist<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Courtney Willis Blair traveled to the capital looking for fresh talent on behalf of New York\u2019s Mitchell-Innes & Nash<\/a>, Appah recalls, \u201cShe came to my studio and saw my stuff. She didn\u2019t show too much excitement.\u201d Willis Blair must have a good poker face: She ended up offering him his U.S. debut. \u201cWe did a beautiful show,\u201d he says. \u201cWe sold out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAppah couldn\u2019t attend in person\u2014it was 2020, the pre-Covid-vaccine era\u2014but the exhibition caught the attention of other galleries, including Pace. In 2024, he made up for the missed trip with the inaugural Watermill Center Visual Arts Fellowship<\/a> in the Hamptons. There, as in Accra, he alternated between four hours of painting and brief rest breaks, sometimes working well into the night.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, he shot a short film, called Beyond the Shadows, in Takoradi, which he showed in Paris and brought to Pace. There were \u201cbodies splashing into water and the locals with the boats, pulling fish from the sea,\u201d he says. \u201cBefore I knew it, I started to paint some of them.\u201d Seeing both the film and the canvases illuminates how the imagination and the physical world intertwine in his work.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"A<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA work in progress.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Pace Gallery and the Artist<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps the biggest test Appah has set for himself is one of scale. Artists often start small because materials are expensive. But when Appah was young, he read that big pieces are a sign of confidence, so he went for it. Now, he\u2019s pushing himself to make a diminutive painting as compelling as an enormous one.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt can get frustrating,\u201d he admits, from fitting the composition into the reduced frame to mastering control of a tiny brush. But he\u2019s determined: \u201cIt\u2019s for the challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n