We recently connected with Eugene Ofori Agyei and have shared our conversation below.

Eugene, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I grew up in a country where there is access to few ceramic materials, equipment, and no regard for ceramic art. I became the first in my family to study art in college and then made my way into graduate school in the United States to pursue my artistic career. One can only wonder why I still wanted to pursue the career of being an artist. I now understand from experience that infinite possibilities are found when people are offered a place where they can shine fearlessly.

I have always loved to draw and create objects. I remember I was interested in replicating objects using the materials I found in my daily life. I would draw cartoons in magazines whenever I got back from school after getting my homework done. I was doing all these things without my parents’ knowledge since what they wished for me did not involve art. They however wanted me to become a doctor, engineer, etc. I took the risk and ignored their wishes, and then furthered my education in art. In college, I specialized in ceramics because of my curiosity. I was wondering how people were making something out of nothing. As an undergraduate student in graphic design from high school, I never thought of manipulating clay. I took my first class, and the feel of the clay made me realize how satisfying working by hand was. The clay claimed me, and I started making something out of nothing. My intense involvement with clay heightened my desire to explore new techniques and incorporate other media as a way of communicating my ideas as a contemporary African ceramic artist.

If I can remember after my college graduation in 2018 from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, my mom asked me what next since I chose to study art. I confidently said to her, “I want to be a professional artist”. At that point she knew she had nothing to do rather than supporting my interests now. In 2019, I met Professor Jeannie Hulen from University of Arkansas who came to Ghana as a Fulbright scholar for a year. She introduced me to ceramics artists who were making it abroad and the kind of contemporary works they were creating and encouraged me to learn more by researching. She made it known to me that it was possible to get into a graduate school in the United States and encouraged me to apply. I did my research, I applied and got accepted into 6 schools. Now, my work is used as a medium to express narrative and it’s a powerful tool that brings community together.

Eugene, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a multimedia artist from Ghana living in Gainesville, Florida. My practice focuses on the creation of ceramic sculptures and installations that explore the notions of belonging, displacement, identity, memory, and dislocation. I earned my Bachelor of Art degree from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana majoring in Ceramics in 2018. Prior to my MFA at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, I was assigned as a teaching and research assistant in the same school where I received my BA for one year. I have had awards to my credit including 2020/2021 recipient of the University of Florida Grinter Fellowship, 2021 Zenobia Award, the 2022 Artaxis Fellowship Award, 2022 National Council on Education for the Ceramic Art (NCECA) Graduate Student Fellowship Award, the 2022 NCECA Multicultural Fellowship Award, the Pathways 2022: The Carlos Malamud Prize for emerging artists in Florida, among others. I have shown my work nationally and internationally including Turkey, Florida, New York, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Philadelphia among others. In April 2022, the Morean Arts Center named me as one of its Fresh Squeezed 6: Emerging Artists in Florida.

My work encompasses the architectural, geographical, cultural, and social spaces encountered as a person of the diaspora. I use clay to communicate my challenges of occupying these two worlds as forms. I shroud them in brightly colored African batik fabric, yarn and familiar materials found in my daily life to reflect my identity. Although batik fabric is originally manufactured in Indonesia and printed in Africa, the yarn originates in China. Its complex material history symbolizes my cultural hybridity.

In my work, I engage with visual language as a form of expression to command the experience and engagement of the viewer to start a dialogue about identity and question the relationship between belonging and home.

My upcoming solo exhibitions will be at Art Center Sarasota (FL) in February 2023 and Rollins Museum of Art (FL) in May 2023. Follow me on Instagram @eugeneagyeiarts and www.eugeneagyeiarts.com for more about my creative career.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me the self-confidence it builds, the process of moving from idea to wholly accomplished piece. Also, the fact it brings the community together and the piece is serving as a medium to communicate a message is the most rewarding aspect every time.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal or mission for my creative journey is to become a professor in art. show my work and help to unravel the complexity of traditional ceramic design and expand the frontier of ceramic art in Ghana.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.eugeneagyeiarts.com
• Instagram: eugeneagyeiarts
• Facebook: Eugene Ofori Agyei
• Linkedin: Eugene Ofori Agyei
• Twitter: AgyeiArts

Image Credits
Artist