Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe: Fragments of History

COMA is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Ghanaian artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe (b.1988, Accra, Ghana; based in Portland, OR), titled, Fragments of History, on view Friday 30 August - 28 September. This is the artist's first solo presentation with the gallery and taking place at 2/27-39 Abercrombie Street, NSW, 2008.

In this new series of paintings, the artist explores the remnants of colonisation in his hometown of Accra, Ghana. The portraits are built up using thick layers of oil paint, often incorporating found objects and patterned collage. References to colonial era uniforms and architecture slowly reveal fragments of histories shared across cultures.

Alongside these works, Quaicoe presents a small group of paintings that draw inspiration from a recent research trip to Australia. During these travels he met with Dennis Golding, a prominent Indigenous artist of the Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay language group, and together they began a dialogue around shared perspectives on struggles under a colonial history, geographically distant yet deeply similar. Each portrait becomes a symbol of the reclamation of cultural identity, embracing the idea of origin and personal narrative as it relates to race dynamics.