Nortey, S. (2020). Twenty-First Century Contemporary Ceramic Art in Ghana: Emerging Visual Language and Practice

This article provides a discussion on Ghanaian Ceramics and how expressions have opened up in the visual art especially in the medium of ceramics to bring Ghanaian Ceramics onto the international scene. It looks at how colonialism impacted the Ghanaian Art scene and the lack of visibility due to the Western canon and privileging particular art forms, schools and exhibitions. It discusses how the Faculty of Art at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has had significant role in building connections to the international and how the foundation for a stronger ceramics programme and practiced were developed. Through reforms and emancipatory directions from some faculty members and practitioners, contemporary Ghanaian ceramic practice is emerging on the global scene and creating connections with the global fraternity. The new  practice is becoming vital, forward looking, and imminently contemporary. The works produced currently by Ghanaian ceramic artists are strengthened by rich and diverse forms of traditional Ghanaian ceramics and Ghanaian cultural traditions broadly with less limitations to materiality and form.