Yellow is the Colour of Water

The taste Jeremiah Quarshie left in the mouths of his viewers in his last solo art exhibition last month, is yet to be forgotten. The works of the Ghanaian painter contain urbane portraits characterised by distinctive realism.

Quarshie’s hyper-realistic paintings explore the boundaries between physical and digital production; considering the construction of imagery, his work investigates the nature of art itself. Through detailed portraiture, emphasising the connectedness between people otherwise divided by social, economic or geographical conditions.

The artist reveals an acute social awareness. Using images of ordinary people, such as labourers, nurses, pregnant women, market mummies, expatriates and several others to convey his message.

His work takes its history from social illogicality in contemporary life while negotiating anxieties with satire and lightness. Exposing the contradictions that border on the quality of water and its availability.

He works with mostly colourful yellow gallons. Thus, titled: Yellow is the Colour of Water. The exhibition of paintings revolves around water and the ever-present yellow plastic gallons that permeate all parts of Accra thereby vividly revealing one of the problems facing the city.

Curated by Robin Riskin, the exhibition is in a range of media formats and set across a network of site-specific mediations. These include Kotoka International Airport and the Tema Bus Station where gallons equally take the role of backdrops, props and chairs.

He graduated from the College of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Kumasi).

He has participated in several group exhibitions – these include National Museum of Science and Technology, Prime Motors Ltd, Goethe-Institut, La Villa Boutique Hotel, Nubuke Foundation (Ghana), Villa Mohr (Germany), Sabi Yu Rutu (Suriname), and the Stedelijk Museum Bureau (The Netherlands).