The watcher, 2025

Philip Kumah  

Artist Bio Philip Kumah is a Ghanaian artist whose practice explores memory, identity, and environmental transformation through the medium of textile. Working primarily with recycled African fabrics, Kumah creates pixelated portraits and abstract compositions that reframe cultural histories through material experimentation. His work is rooted in the tactile language of fabric, drawing from traditions of Ghanaian cloth-making, personal memory, and the broader socio-political histories embedded in textiles. Kumah holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), where he first began exploring the impact of illegal mining (“galamsey") on Ghana's cocoa farming communities. This early research would later evolve into large-scale installations examining ecological degradation, ancestral memory, and cultural resilience. His textile-based portrait of Nelson Mandela is part of the Ford Foundation's permanent collection in New York and was featured in The New York Times during their 2018 coverage of the Foundation's Center for Social Justice. A portrait of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah by Kumah is on permanent display at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra, further grounding his work in Ghana's cultural and political legacy. Over the years, Kumah has exhibited in both group and private exhibitions in Ghana, including presentations for the President of Germany (2017) and the King of England (2018). His work was also featured in the 2024 African Icons exhibition. He is currently developing a new body of work focused on the relationship between traditional land practices and ecological resilience. Kumah lives and works in Ghana.