Rita Mawuena Benissan Cote D'Ivoire, b. 1995

Overview

Rita Mawuena Benissan is a Ghanaian interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores cultural memory, identity, and the visual language of chieftaincy. Working across photography, embroidery, sculpture, and installation, she draws on archival imagery and traditional symbols of authority, including royal umbrellas and stools, to reconsider how Ghanaian histories are preserved and represented. Benissan works closely with local artisans, bringing inherited craft traditions into dialogue with contemporary artistic practice. Her research frequently centres on Akan chieftaincy, palace life, processions, and ceremonial gatherings, using the archive as a space for reclamation and renewed visibility.

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Exhibitions

Biography

Born in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire in 1995 to Ghanaian parents, Rita Mawuena Benissan moved to the United States as a child, where she earned a BFA in Apparel and Textile Design from Michigan State University in 2017, followed by an MFA in Photography and an African Studies Program Certificate from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2021.

In 2020, Benissan established Si Hene, a foundation dedicated to preserving and reinterpreting Ghana’s chieftaincy and traditional culture. Through the foundation, she contributed to the reopening of the National Museum of Ghana in 2022 and has continued to develop a practice centred on archival research, cultural preservation and the visual language of Ghanaian chieftaincy.

Recent solo exhibitions include The Ones Before Her Were Covered In Gold at Gallery 1957, London (2025), One Must Be Seated at Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town (2024–25), and In the World not of the World at Gallery 1957, Accra (2023). Recent group presentations include Ghana! Dreaming Independence 1957–1976 at Rencontres d’Arles, France (2026), Kabarin-Javakanto, a reading of Collection Fondation H at Fondation H, Madagascar (2025), and the Sharjah Biennale (2025). In 2025, Benissan became the first woman and youngest artist commissioned for the Zeitz MOCAA Atrium.

Benissan’s work is held in private and institutional collections including Fondation H, The Dean Collection, OmenaArt Foundation, Fundación Yannick y Ben, Fondazione Golinelli and the Nicolas Berggruen Collection.