Ghanaian painter Kwame Akoto, known for his vibrant signboard works blending bold imagery with urgent text, is the subject of his first major French exhibition, 'Almighty God Art Works', at the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris. In an interview with ART AFRICA, Akoto discusses how his paintings transform when moving from the streets of Kumasi—where they function as everyday spiritual and commercial communication—into a European museum context, addressing themes of translation, shared authorship, and the shifting meanings of images across cultural and institutional boundaries.
This exhibition matters because it places a contemporary Ghanaian artist rooted in popular painting and public faith within a museum historically shaped by colonial collecting and ethnographic displays of African art. Akoto's work challenges labels like 'outsider art' and raises critical questions about how local visual languages are interpreted when they enter global institutions, highlighting the ongoing negotiation between authorship, community, and the legacy of ethnographic framing in the art world.