Michael Gah

Michael Gah grew up a few metres from the sea in Accra, on a beach that is disappearing under textile waste. He learned from local artists as a teenager and sold his first works on the street. Today he builds pictures from discarded fabric: material from Kantamanto market and offcuts from a friend’s tailoring workshop. His mother helps him choose the fabrics.

His portraits and everyday scenes often put women at the centre, together with couples, friends and families. His current series, Women in the Disco Era, celebrates women who are loud and proud. He has sold more than sixty works and has shown in South Africa, Ghana, France and the United Kingdom. In 2025 he took part in the makers united residency at Schloss Augustusburg and showed Orange Moment in Earth in Orbit.