Wiz Kudowor gets set for exhibition

Art circles in the nation’s capital are buzzing with excitement about the upcoming month-long solo exhibition by Wiz Kudowor, slated to open on September 18 at the  Artists Alliance  Gallery, La in Accra.

About 80 works from the artist will fill the first floor and its side galleries for the exhibition that Wiz says is an opportunity for the public to see the stylistic phases he has been going through over the last 20 years or so.

A product of the College  of Art, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi,  Wiz has a solid reputation on the art scene for the distinctive nature of his work which he says  has no name.

 “I don’t have a name for it. I shouldn’t really. My work is basically an avenue for me to express myself. To bring out what is in me.”

What is in Wiz has been shown widely across the world in places such as  United States, Switzerland, Spain, England, Holland, Denmark, Japan, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Nigeria and  Malaysia.

For the upcoming exhibition, Wiz would include some stuff that date back to about 1997.  That was when he was touted as a master of pointillism. He has since moved on to embrace other approaches.

“It is true I started off with the pointillist approach. Then  it developed as a means  of working fast.  I then discovered tools like rollers to achieve the same textured effects instead of sitting for hours making dots.”

The roller is his basic tool now.  He, however, also uses the painting knife on canvas which he describes as a playing field where his desires, dreams, expectations and inquisitive thoughts from the recesses of his being are reduced to shapes, forms and colour.  

Wiz says for over 30 years, he has been through the grind as an artist “having fun, punishing myself and rewarding myself to get this far.”

How far he has gone at the moment will be the main thrust of the September 18 exhibition at the Artists Alliance Gallery.