Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku

Emmanuel Aggrey Tieku (b.1994, Cape Coast) is a Ghanaian multidisciplinary artist and Civil Engineer. Influenced by the lavish fashion lifestyle and vast textile collection of his grandmother who was a Queen Mother, the artist weaves into his compositions a narrative that connects us all; that what we wear is an extension of our identity and an expression of how we want to be seen. With a background in Civil Engineering, he discovered the contemporary re-use of discarded fabric and textile waste, experimenting on textile waste recycling and re-use in the construction industry.

Since then, he's been engaged in the installation of discarded second-hand clothing popularly known in his country as 'dead white man's clothing' which he sources from landfills, beaches and Kantamanto Market (the world's largest thrift market), creating works of abstraction that are exuberant and full of colour. Motivated by the historical elements embedded in objects at the end of their life cycle, he is particularly intrigued by the transference of these narratives into vulnerable present spaces.

Aggrey's combined knowledge of engineering and fluidity of art gives him a unique perspective of the world as he blends sculpture and painting into one body of work when he subjects the fabric he scavenges to a vigorous dyeing process and a series of undercoats and overcoats, creating a transitional framework for the fabric to develop into an entirely different medium of expression. His practice explores the concepts of waste colonialism and questions the ideals of freedom in the expression of social identity and self-liberation within cultural appropriations in the context of industrialization, consumerism, climate change and sustainability.

His projects include 'SPACES AND SOUNDS I' (2020), 'A BED OF ROSES AND FORGOTTEN DREAMS' (2021-2022), 'BUTTERFLIES ON A PARCHED LAND' (2022) and 'HOW TO HEAL A B-R-O-K-E-N WORLD' (2025-2031). Internationally, Emmanuel has shown at Art Basel Miami and is preparing for his debut shows in Paris and Bologna in 2025 with Artgence. The artist has to his journey a solo exhibition 'ARTIVISM: DISCARDED BODIES, DISCOVERED TRANSITIONS' (Accra, 2024) and a solo museum exhibition 'CROSS-SECTIONS OF A THOUSAND LIVES' (2024) at the Institute Museum of Ghana.