Eugene Ankomah

Early life

Born and raised in the London Borough of Brent, northwest London. He spent his early childhood living in Ghana with his parents and four siblings, before his family relocated to the United Kingdom in 1990.

Ankomah first realised his love for art as a child of four, when he recalls being obsessed with drawing boxes, and then moved on to drawing members of his family. From the very early beginnings he was recognised and described by many as an "artistic child prodigy".

Secondary education and early development

Ankomah was a pupil at Willesden High School from 1991, where he completed his secondary education. Hi unusual artistic talent was noticed by his art teacher, Mr Blackburn. At the age of 17 Ankomah became the first ever recipient of the Peter Evans Award, awarded by his school for best student, winning a prize fund of £900 as part of the prize.

After completing his secondary education Ankomah followed a Foundation course at Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design. He graduated in Illustration and Fine Art at the University of Westminster.

During this period Ankomah’s works were taken up by the art dealer Karl Barrie of the Kaleidescope Gallery, North-West London, who exposed Ankomah’s works at The Affordable Art Fair. Barrie was later quoted as saying of Ankomah: "He's so talented you just want to be sick."

In 1996 Ankomah became a member of the Brent Artists' Register in Willesden, London, which connected local artists with the local community.

He also began taking part in both local, national and international group shows and solo shows as well as taking on professional art commissions, which ranged from portraits to producing illustrative designs for posters and postcards.

Nail paintings

Ankomah's Nail Paintings series of works include pieces such as 2+2=This Used To Be My Playground, 1+6=Nemeses' and File+36=Warrior Dance to name but a few.

In these works Ankomah used materials such as rusty nails, chicken heads, pigs' ears, pigs' feet, bamboo and other found objects.

Fans and collectors

In 2007 and 2008 Ankomah attended both the 5th and 6th annual Screen Nation Awards (the "Black BAFTAs") where he showcased a selection of his works. As a result, a number of celebrities came to own examples of Ankomah’s work,including UK Grime artist Dizzie Rascal, gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes, actor Colin Salmon, actress Freema Agyeman, long-time broadcaster Moira Stuart and comedian Jocelyn Jee Esien.

British Beat poet and author Michael Horovitz also owns one of Ankomah’s signature artworks.

Awards and prizes

Age 17 Ankomah was the first ever recipient of the Peter Evans Award, awarded by his school for best student. He has been awarded from The Apthorp Fund for Young Artists (which he won twice in 1999 and 2002), Urban Tension' Prize and Contemporary Portraits' Prize.

Shows and exhibitions

To date Eugene Ankomah has taken part in more than 90 shows and exhibitions.

He was one of the few artists chosen by the NCA National Campaign for the Arts to showcase his work in a major solo show entitled The Birth of... at London's Carnaby Street in 2003; the NCA is chaired by Melvyn Bragg (presenter of ITV's The South Bank Show and long-time broadcaster).

In 2008 Ankomah took part in a group show entitled An Expo of Artful Dodgers among a list of UK visual artists. He was part of a selected group of artists described as "the cream of up-and-coming talent" by The Daily Telegraph.

During this period Ankomah took part in several other group shows including Graffiti Express (which he curated), an experimental group show which took place at The Wall at the Gallery in Willesden Green. During this period he appeared as a special guest on Life FM Radio's Culture Show (now known as Bang Radio in North-West London) his live radio interview was broadcast in March 2008.

On a visit to Germany in 2008 (Wittenberg) he took part in a group show entitled Feinprobe Honigüss (The Oversweet Experience) with the European Roots Movement.

In December 2011 Ankomah's works were featured at a pop-up exhibition themed Visual Grandeur, produced by Visual Collaborative in Washington, D.C.

Artist residencies

In June 2009 Ankomah went on to begin his third artist residency to date at Salmon Youth Centre (South of London), one of the largest Youth Centre establishments in Europe.

During this period Ankomah has worked on commissions and projects for Southwark Council, South Bermondsey Carnival and took part in a show entitled Canvas For Change at City Hall (the Mayor of London - Boris Johnson's office), which focused on Global Warming. This work was auctioned for the charity Oxfam later in the year.

Prior to this Ankomah completed a residency at Capital City Academy (the first artist residency of its kind in the country), which he completed in 2009.

His first artist residency took place at the OK Club in South Kilburn, which he completed in 2005.

Commissions and projects

In 2002 Ankomah was commissioned by the Ghana High Commission to create a special flag for Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II, his specially created flag was one of the flags which appeared on top of the Royal Family's official address at Buckingham Palace. He has also worked on a painting for the Royal Family in Torino, Italy.

In 1998, Ankomah’s local Borough of Brent commissioned him to produce a design for the celebration of its "Harlesden City Challenge" pilot programme, which helped numerous residents of the borough with countless social, housing and educational issues.

In late 2003 Ankomah collaborated on a series of paintings with an artistic colleague when they became Artists in Residence at the Brent Artists' Register (BAR) in Willesden Green, North-West London. They called the collaborative project Cypher and together produced a series of paintings on various themes. The following year in 2004, they exhibited a selection of these works at the Brixton Art Gallery along with five other Visual Artists at the e2Di show. This collaborative project later developed into a small organisation called Cypher Arts, which provided the local community with art workshops and student mentorships within Youth Centres and Colleges.

In August 2009, on a separate visit to Hanover, Germany, where together with a group of young people, Ankomah created a painting for the Mayor of Langenhagen and the Mayor of Hanover.

Other commissions have included the Bigga Fish - Notting Hill Carnival Project, South Kilburn Youth Festival Banner Project and many others.

Illustrative work

In 2009, Ankomah was commissioned to produce illustrations for the author Macharia Gakuru. The two books, ‘Mumbi’ and ‘Prince Olympics and London 2012’ were published in September 2009.

Press

Ankomah's earliest press features included The Willesden and Brent Times, Kilburn Times and The Brent Recorder.

By the end of August 2009 Ankomah had gained a high amount of press coverage and media attention and was now being hailed as "Ghana’s Star Artist" on an international stage.

By October 2009 he had been featured in more than 70 top national and international press and media publications, including The Voice newspaper, Ghana Celebrities, African Promo, Modern Ghana, Catch A Vibe, African Echo, Naijalife Magazine and Black Heritage Today Magazine.

In September 2009 Mimi Magazine also featured Ankomah as one of "The Hot 21", a list which featured twenty-one of Africa's rising talent and hottest Black pan-African stars on the global arena, commenting: “Artist Eugene Ankomah socially inspired and politically themed work is leaving an imprint on the art world and garnering the respect of art lovers and critics alike.”