In this reflective essay, Kwame Aidoo—a Ghanaian writer with a background in international arts journalism (ArtReview, NATAAL, Culture Trip)—turns his attention to two powerful exhibitions that expand how we see African and diasporal art. From The Writing’s on the Wall at SCCA Tamale in northern Ghana to Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art at the Ford Foundation Gallery in New York, Aidoo highlights how women artists are reclaiming memory, identity, and heritage across continents. His take is both analytical and celebratory, situating these exhibitions as vital cultural conversations that not only honour tradition but also open new futures for African and diasporal creativity.

Two exhibitions with Africa at the core and women artists at the forefront, disrupting parameters and expanding the visual, scientific, archival and mystical conversations are The Writing’s on the Wall showing at SCCA, Tamale and Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art debuting at Ford Foundation Gallery, New York.  These two exhibitions represent opportunities for intercultural dialogue and inspire investment in women-led interventions on and off the continent. 

The Writing’s on the Wall is a platform to sense the range and clarity of the multidisciplinary worlds of 14 women artists- from or living in Ghana. Running from 13th September through 14th March, 2026, the exhibition highlights care-giving and birthing while exploring layered realities, where ordinary materials and objects are explored through diverse practices. Visitors are not only welcome into a space organized for disruption and restoration, but for rewriting broken systems while reimagining environments and expectations. Through perceptive observation and sensitive but curiously critical scrutiny, ecosystems from the cellular level to the familial, social and the transcendental are examined. 

SCCA Tamale, the artist-led institution in the north of Ghana is the exhibition’s location. Public investment in institutions like SCCA Tamale would go a long way to support expressions of culture and identity, as the space serves as a catalyst for innovation, well-being and resilience, in this case congregating the voices of young women creatives. Curator Robin Riskin invites visitors to experience selected works by Nuotama Bodomo, Nyornuwofia Agorsor, Na Chainkua Reindorf, Naomi Boahemaa Jnr. Sakyi, Akosua Odeibea Amoah-Yeboah, Anna Friemoth, Penny & Pierre Gentieu, Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson, Lois Selasie Arde-Acquah, Priscilla Kennedy, Kezia Ouomoye, Afia Prempeh, Fibi Afloe, Zohra Opoku and Baerbel Mueller.  

Kezia Ouomoye’s Pilot to The Family Portrait (2025) takes a dive into intergenerational narratives in connection to spatial realities with her family home as a case study, depicted with fabricated wooden parts, paint, DIY dolls: industrial and found materials. 

_{Installation view, including Kezia Ouomoye’s “Pilot to The Family Portrait” (2025), fabricated wooden parts, fabric, industrial and found material; “Vertigo” photography series (2020) by Anna Friemoth, and analogue photography by Penny Gentieu (1977) and Pierre Gentieu (1880s-1890s); and Naomi Boahemaa Jnr. Sakyi’s mural painting, “A walk through TaMa B-8” (2025), acrylic on khaki cloth, 26.2 x 14.27 ft. Image by Robin Riskin, courtesy of SCCA Tamale, Robin Beth Inc. and the artists.}

Naomi Boahemaa Jnr. Sakyi’s work is a 26.2 x 14.27 feet mural composed of acrylic paint, collage and image transfer on khaki cloth, titled: A Walk Through TaMa B-8 (2025), which comments on the semi-permanence of local market layouts, the energy and movements prompting organic aesthetic and sociocultural adaptations rooted in informality and dimensional interactivity. Sakyi seeks to convey the non-static verities, example; “a pile of vibrant spices might be next to a stack of simple cardboard boxes, and a person’s colourful clothing might momentarily create a striking composition against a stall’s backdrop”. Sakyi’s piece spreads out on a circumferential womb-like installation next to Nyornuwofia Agorsor’s 30 x 14.6 feet acrylic on khaki cloth mural AGBE(Life) (2025) which bears the philosophical terms Trukpe (cosmic transformation), Fu ((Principle of Conception), Adagana (Rhythm of Creator), Thotho (Existence) and more. Through Nyornuwofia’s work, an assemblage of Efa symbology, incantations and rituals bracket the past, present and future of life in constant transformation. 

_{Nyornuwofia Agorsor. “AGBE (Life)” (2025). Mural: acrylic on khaki cloth. 30 x 14.6 ft. Installation view. Image by Robin Riskin, courtesy of SCCA Tamale, Robin Beth Inc. and the artist.}

_{Nyornuwofia Agorsor. “AGBE (Life)” (2025). Mural: acrylic on khaki cloth. 30 x 14.6 ft. Installation view. Image by Robin Riskin, courtesy of SCCA Tamale, Robin Beth Inc. and the artist.}

At the meeting point of anatomy and womanhood, Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson’s When Mouth Dreams, Does Saliva Grow Ferns? (2025) introduces viewers to microscopic imagery of her own saliva, zooming in on saliva ferns with crystallisation patterns. Thompson’s work visually emphasises the occurrence of an estrogen surge just prior to ovulation. On the topic of physiological and sociopolitical connections, Priscilla Kennedy looks at how the body in its journey through experiences is clouded by material culture, entangled with memory and degeneration/regeneration. With inspiration from hospital medical charts and the aesthetics of diseases, the artist brings together velvet cut-outs with sequins and beads embroidered on Kente cloth, in the piece Invisible Cities (2025).

_{Tracy Naa Koshie Thompson. “When Mouth Dreams, does Saliva Grow Ferns?” (2025). Prints on PVC Foam. 3D Print (Silk PLA – Polylactic Acid). Including the short films “Galaxy” and “Fountain” (2025); 3:27 min., 2:52 min. Image by Robin Riskin, courtesy of SCCA Tamale, Robin Beth Inc. and the artist.}

_{Priscilla Kennedy. “Invisible Cities” (2025). Velvet cut-outs with sequins and beads embroidered on Kente cloth. 9.8 x 5.1 ft. Installation view. Image by Robin Riskin, courtesy of SCCA Tamale, Robin Beth Inc. and the artist.}

While The Writing’s on the Wall shines light on contemporary voices from and/or working in Ghana, Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art goes to celebrate and make connections to renowned Nigerian potter Ladi Dosei Kwali’s (1925-1984) work. Curated by Dr. Jareh Das and marking the centenary of the renowned potter’s birth, the exhibition staged at Ford Foundation Gallery – New York from September 10 through December 6, 2025, studies the matrilineal legacy of pioneering African pottery techniques.

_{Ladi Kwali at work. Courtesy Kwali Family Archives and Ford Foundation Gallery.}

Commemorating three generations of Black women artistry, the sociocultural and political significances of clay receptacles as functional objects and collectable pieces, are explored with over fifty works. Aside from Ladi Kwali, the show features Simone Leigh, Anina Major, Bisila Noha, Magdalene Odundo, Julia Phillips, Halima Audu, Phoebe Collings-James, Jade de Montserrat, Chinasa Vivian Ezugha, Adebunmi Gbadebo, and a selection of Abuja Pottery ceramics (Michael Cardew, Asibi Ido, and George Sempagala), and archival material. The exhibition design and graphic art are by Ayo Design and NMutiti Studio respectively. 

_{Installation Shot: A Section of Body Vessel Clay: Black Women, Ceramics & Contemporary Art exhibition. Courtesy Ford Foundation Gallery.} 

Aside from appearing on Nigeria’s 20-Naira notes, Kwali is famous for her hand-crafted Gbari water pots, tankards, plates, dishes and bowls with impressions and symbols made using blade-like palm ribs or porcupine quills. Also showing is a selection of domestic ware by other Nigerian modernist potters including Asibe Ido, George Sempagala and Halima Audu, who are known for incorporating iconography of flora, airborne or serpentine organisms or spirits.

From the curatorial direction to the selection of artists, these two exhibitions discussed above are open to lead visitors into zestful, elaborate realms, breathing life into the African and diasporal art world as led and shaped by women with refreshing ideologies, stratified themes and material approaches. 

Editor’s Note

Kwame Aidoo is a Ghanaian writer whose work has been featured in ArtReview, StirWorld, Something We Africans Got, The Lead UK, NUDA, Culture Trip, NATAAL, and more. With a passion for storytelling that honours both heritage and innovation, Kwame brings a keen eye for detail and cultural nuance to his writing.

_{Kwame Aidoo, Ghanaian Writer}