Sankofa and the Sands of Time: How Ekow Eshun Curated His New Exhibition

Over the past 20 years, Ekow Eshun has developed a career of many firsts and has established himself as a creative chameleon. For his latest foray, the British-Ghanaian has curated an art exhibition at Accra’s Gallery 157, which explores the Ghanaian concept of sankofa – deriving its meaning from the idea of returning to the past to move forward. In bringing together established and emerging artists from Africa and the diaspora, the exhibition aims to explore African cultural notions of non-linear time. The exhibition has new artworks from a range of mediums, including painting, collage and moving images, and features artists like Tunji Adeniyi-Jones, Arthur Timothy, Julian Knxx, Tiffanie Delune, Zanele Muholi, Amoako Boafo and Godfried Donkor. In and Out of Time runs parallel to a solo show of artist-in-residence Yaw Owusu, curated by Nigerian curator Azu Nwagbogu, as well as a presentation of artist Priscilla Kennedy, winner of the Gallery’s Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize 2022.

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