C& Artists’ Edition #5 Zohra Opoku

We are thrilled to announce our new C& Artists’ Edition in collaboration with Zohra Opoku. Having been part of our network since C&’s inception, it is both an honor and a pleasure to work with her again.

Titled Give me back my black dolls – a quote taken from the poem “Limbé” by Négritude poet Léon-Gontran Damas – and featuring a portrait of Zohra Opoku as a child, the work represents a first encounter with a visual composition that leads into her new body of work of the same name. This new focus furthers Opoku’s ongoing mission to encourage children of color to love and embrace themselves and each other.

“I am two or three years old in the portrait, standing in front of a favorite childhood place, the farm of my grandparents (Spreewald, Germany). It represents incredible memories from my first years, before I began school in the north of East Germany after my mother graduated and moved to start her first job. At the farm, the connection to nature and animals and the familiarity of family handcrafts such as knitting, crochet, embroidery, and sewing were strong. I am wearing my grandfather’s garden boots. He was my hero in so many ways – I rarely left his side. Today, I understand that my early years and core identity were defined there, before difficulties started in my youth – before school, where bullying, beauty idealism, and puberty created different effects on my sense of self. The drawing featured in this edition represents a moment of crystalizing identity, inspired by my son Junior who turned twenty this year. I have been making choices for him that have allowed him to grow a strong mind as an African child, knowing who he is and where he comes from. I love this for him – going out into this world very conscious of himself, his Ghanaian heritage, and the beauty and power of his Blackness.”

About the artist
Zohra Opoku is a German Ghanaian artist, living and working in Accra, Ghana. Opoku is internationally recognized for her textile works interweaving historical and personal themes, particularly in the context of contemporary Ghana. She has exhibited at Accra’s Nubuke Foundation, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and Berlin’s Haus der Kulturen der Welt and Palais Populaire, to name just a few. Her work is collected by institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic Collection, the Royal Museum of Ontario, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Tate Modern in London, and most recently the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Opoku is represented by Mariane Ibrahim Gallery Chicago/Paris/Mexico City.

About C& Artists’ Editions
C& Artists’ Editions is a program of specially commissioned editions by collaborating artists who have been part of the C& network since its launch in 2013. C& Artists’ Editions offers an accessible, collectible portfolio of works by younger and older generations of artists from Africa and the global Diaspora. All proceeds directly support the artists and C&’s future program.

Find more info about the edition and how to purchase it here.

Read a conversation with Zohra Opoku here.