The World · Kobina Nyarko
Feeling the Ocean’s Voice
Filmed in Takoradi in 2024. Kobina paints from the shore where the nets now bring in plastic as well as fish.
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Kobina Nyarko
Takoradi, Ghana · b. 1972
Biography
Kobina Nyarko grew up by the sea in Takoradi, and the sea has been his subject for more than twenty years. People there call him Fishman. He paints shoals of fish on large canvases, thousands of small strokes that turn into movement. In recent years plastic has entered the pictures: fishing nets and waste collected on the shore, worked into the surface or painted as the gaps that open up in the shoal.
He studied Industrial Art at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. In 2024 we filmed him for the documentary “Feeling the Ocean’s Voice” and showed his work on Sylt. In 2025 his paintings were part of Earth in Orbit in Munich and of the SPECK Pumpen stand in Barcelona.
Film loop: Kobina Nyarko paints a shoal of fish on blue ground, stroke by stroke.
When the last fish dies
Kobina Nyarko has painted the shoals off Takoradi for more than twenty years. Today the nets bring in plastic as well as fish.
Works
24 works. Click a work to look closer.
Behind the FlowKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas
Birth of Holes, 2019Kobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas80 × 80 cm
Birth of New SpeciesKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas101 × 140 cm
Black / White Series IKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas122 × 172 cm
Circus in the Sea, 2015Kobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas142 × 107 cm
Climatic ChangeKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas107 × 107 cm
Crown SeekersKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas220 × 100 cm
Discovered Species, 2018Kobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas92 × 163 cm
FishKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas
Fish Facial FigureKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas167 × 198 cm
Hunting SkillsKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas101 × 120 cm
PlanctonKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas
Quenchless Source, 2021Kobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas92 × 163 cm
Rainbow in the Atlantic OceanKobina NyarkoPlastic collected from sea shore on canvas (~30 kg)142 × 279 cm
Red ShoalKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas119 × 239 cm
Shoal ShowerKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas133 × 153 cm
Surfers BoundaryKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas97 × 201 cm
The Choicest DecisionKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas100 × 180 cm
The Spirit Within SurvivorsKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas102 × 152 cm
To the Agreed Location, 2019Kobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas80 × 80 cm
Untitled (122x183)Kobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas122 × 183 cm
Warm Passage, 2020Kobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas152 × 100 cm
WildKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas
Within HarmonyKobina NyarkoAcrylic on canvas190 × 110 cm
