DIRECTORY 2025

Eugene Ofori Agyei | Sculpture, Installation

Eugene Ofori Agyei, a Ghanaian-born artist and educator based in New York, explores the emotional connections between Ghana and the U.S. through his art. A graduate of Kwame Nkrumah University in Ghana (BA, Industrial Art) and the University of Florida (MFA, with honors), he has received numerous accolades, including the 2020–2021 University of Florida Grinter Fellowship, 2023 Harold Garde Graduate Studio Art Award, and 2024 Robert C. Turner Teaching Fellowship at Alfred University.

Agyei’s work, exhibited in group and solo shows across the U.S. and internationally, has drawn attention from collectors like Franz, Duke of Bavaria, who acquired several pieces for museum placement. Notable exhibitions include his first solo museum show at the Rollins Museum of Art and group exhibitions at the American Museum of Ceramic Art and the Black History Museum of Virginia.

In his work, ceramics, fabrics, yarns, and altered everyday objects are chosen for their complex histories, with the memories and sentiments they evoke serving as the starting point of the art-making process. To highlight the values and importance of cultural elements in the diaspora, he employs the coil technique, traditionally used by Ghanaian women from the Akan community. Eugene integrates this technique as a way to share his heritage through a unique contemporary lens, combining rich, heavy textures with a diverse array of materials. This approach serves as both a visual metaphor and a means of expressing the complexity of the diasporic concept of displacement as an internal and outward experience.

eugeneagyeiarts.com
@eugeneagyeiarts