Remembering a Great Man: A Conversation with Kwame Akoto of Almighty God Art Works

Abstract

| 29 On a Sunday afternoon in April 2021, I met virtually with painter Kwame Akoto, proprietor of the Almighty God Art Works studio located off the Suame Roundabout in Kumasi. The last time we had met in person was 2018, when I stopped by his studio to see his latest production and to bring Doran’s greetings. Akoto had learned of Doran’s passing in September 2020 from LA gallerist Ernie Wolfe, a mutual friend, who had called him immediately to share the news. During our recent conversation, Akoto was eager to share his feelings and memories of his long relationship with Doran Ross. This piece summarizes our exchange, where Akoto alternated recollections, hymns, and prayers as his tribute to “a great man.” Doran first met the prolific artist Kwame Akoto in 1995 on one of his frequent visits to Kumasi, when he would traverse the city taking stock of the community of sign painters working at a given time. For many years, Akoto, commonly referred to by his friends as “Almighty,” produced a large range of commercial paintings such as shop signs, banners, and other forms of advertising, as well as self-driven creative works mostly purchased by international customers. Over the previous decade, Almighty God Art Works’ commercial production or “sign writing” had progressively been supplanted by digital printing in line with the evolution of the local advertising industry. Digital placards are cheaper and more versatile than handpainted signs, and most businesses today favor photographic compositions that allow for advertising a broader range of products. For Akoto this change in business patterns has meant more time to dedicate to “creativity work.” This is where Akoto experiments with different visual languages and messaging to create paintings that are at once deeply serious and whimsical, poetic and very matter-of-fact. Christian themes, portraits of local and international figures, moral recommendations, and self-portraits are just some of the recurrent elements of Akoto’s iconography— often quite literally expressions of his worldviews and beliefs and plays on the tension between realism and paradox (Ross 2014a: 9). Despite the variety of subjects depicted, Almighty’s very direct