Hamid Nii Nortey: Faith in Strangers

Nortey, a self taught emerging Ghanaian artist (b. 1987), developed his interest in painting as a pupil in Mandla Dada basic school in La Accra, Ghana, and stood witness to the city’s considerable transformation from then on. His compelling and colorful figurative paintings delve into Ghana and the continents fast evolving social landscape shedding a light onto its diverse social classes, as well as the resulting generational developments.

Nortey’s works are characterized by his signature cross hatching technique which he applies onto the skins of his figures. Contrasting the artist’s broad and smooth Impressionist colour palette, the close-knit parallel lines, varying in spacing and width, create a rough, loose organic texture, conveying the at once visual and tactile qualities of natural skin. Starting from meticulous and playful sketches, his portraits grow into lifelike, and lively, visual impressions.

The second section focuses on the juxtaposition between forced migration and leisure travel to present the significant differences in how Western perception can diverge from African reality. Forced migration being motivated by internal and external conflicts, referring to the refugee crisis over the last years is being portraited in elemental visual forms such as despair, helplessness, violence and death. In conjunction with this, the works After a while just living becomes a full-time job, no wonder we need a break and Pleasure without champagne is artificial deliver a contrasting reality of the economically affluent part of African society and also deliver a tragically self-reflecting irony.