Kofi Agorsor is a versatile artist; he paints with both hands and is a successful musician and dancer. In between times, he works on his pineapple plantation in the Volta region. He has adopted no less than four children. "Children are not pretending, I love children", says Agorsor. Agorsor's work is collected worldwide and has been exhibited in a variety of countries, including Italy, the United States and South Africa.
Kofi Agorsor was born in 1970. He started his career as a sign writer painting houses, cars and kiosks with advertising images. He followed his art training at the Ankle School of Art in Accra. In Agorsor's view, there is an essential difference between sign writing and painting, a sign writer is not involved with concepts and the underlying ideas, whereas a painter has to create something, translate his/her feelings in a painting.
Kofi Agorsor also channels his creative energy into music. He finds inspiration in traditional music that is played on drums and shell horns, but also in modern jazz. He spends a lot of time in the recording studio with his flute. When looking at his dynamic paintings that consist of colourful rectangles, it is clear to see that music is an important source of inspiration; you can almost hear the jazz rhythms. Women are another source of inspiration. "I love woman, I love their company". The women that he paints in explosions of colourful blocks seem to actually move. Whenever Agorsor cannot find the inspiration to make music or paint, he disappears to his native village where
working on his pineapple plantation brings him peace of mind. "I get inspiration mostly in the village. It is quit, no hustling, no appointments. So you can concentrate more in the village".
Agorsor is not very impressed by the new generation of artists in Ghana. "We have a lot of talent here but the youngsters are not doing well at all. They just want money. They do not know how to draw properly. They copy and they do not copy well".
Paintings by Kofi Agorsor from the SBK exhibition
Gallery Dauphin sales site (Singapore) with work by Kofi Agorsor
Ghawaco sales site (Canada) with work by Kofi Agorsor


--

June 2002

top