Lord Ohene Okyere-Bour: Afro Memoirs: Accra, Galery I

Gallery 1957 continues its fifth year anniversary with the first solo exhibition by Lord Ohene titled, “Afro Memoirs”.

Beads, like people, are individually textured, painstakingly created entities. Once strung together their meaning, value, beauty, and energy connects and expands – creating something new, a collective. These powerful sources play as culturally specific visual tools in the compositions imagined by artist Lord OHENE Okyere-Bour.

From layered krobo necklaces and personalised pendants to traditional waist beads and trendy asymmetrical earrings – all but one painting in this new body of work features beadwork, like a treasure hunt hinting at the character, style, performance, and dreams of the sitter. The Afro Memoirs series is a deep look inward in order to see outwards. It is a space created for everyone to look back on their past to look forwards to their future. It is a memory, a mirror, a movie set, where one can imagine who they can be and what is possible, when we string our stories together.

Lord is an artist who has lived many lives and wears many hats, establishing unexpected connections with others at every stage of his journey. After pursuing an art degree at the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in his hometown of Accra, Lord pursued fashion illustration and prop building which led to relocating in the Netherlands where he has worked as a movie set designer, glitter art performer, art tutor, and more. His curiosity and resilience are always grounded in the people he meets along the way, the support they provide and the inspiration they incur. For his first solo exhibition, Afro Memoirs, Lord presents a collection of memories through a community of portraits, each one summoning a person grounded in reality (a birth relative or member of his ever-evolving found family, a recent acquaintance or stranger-cum-muse discovered on social media) brought to life through intimate conversation followed by the artist’s imagination.

“In this new body of work,” he explains, “I incorporate elements from life which are inspired by people from my past and my hardships along the way. With each stroke of oil, pastels and acrylics, it slowly brings back the memories that piece represents – a very powerful combination in telling the story of an Afro memoir. From the colours and facial expressions to the structure of clothing, every element of my work is a small piece to the puzzle of my life.” These colourful, characterful portraits all serve as conduits for Lord’s multi-layered memories, shaping a communal possibility. It is a cinematography of self-reflection for social representation, a reimagination of kinship.