About 5,000 miles separate New York City from Kwesi O. Kwarteng’s home country of Ghana, but his artistry in “Friendly Paths,” the newest exhibit at the Plato Gallery in the Bowery, uses textile artwork as an example of the single thread that connects the two worlds.
“I just want it to talk about my immigrant experience,” Kwarteng said to me the night his exhibit opened. “Basically moving here from Ghana and meeting people from different cultures. In this work there are different fabrics from different cultures. I want different people to come in here and see themselves in each piece.”
In “Friendly Paths,” Kwarteng shuns objective forms in his artwork for multiculturalism. While the viewer could make out landscapes, bodies of water, roadways and skylines, the true viewing pleasure exists in what the compilation of materials creates, not so much in the creation itself. It’s a reflection of the storytelling involved in the journey of immigration.
Malcolm Johnson photos
Kwarteng explained that each piece in “Friendly Paths” took between several weeks and several months to complete. Most of the pieces appear as abstract paintings on canvases, but a closer look reveals the cloth weaved together to achieve a similar experience for the viewer. This unique form of textile expression has been in Kwarteng’s repertoire since he first began stitching kente cloth to a canvas more than a decade ago.
Before the painstaking process of dyeing each piece of fabric, many pieces of cloth were collected from Kwarteng’s friends and family. It’s all in an effort to create a mosaic of culture and expression. Coming from India, Japan, Indonesia and Ecuador, the fabric not only represents different countries, but different cultures that went through the similar action of coming to America.
“Every immigrant comes here and creates a family on their way, on their path to America through this multicultural society,” said Kwarteng. “That’s how we create a friendly path along the way.”
Aside from subject matter, what Kwarteng does to set him apart from many other textile artists is allow each work to thrive its own singularity while also serving as a voice in the choir of his exhibition. While Oxford Languages defines immigration as “the act of coming to live permanently in a foreign country,” there’s myriad experiences that exist within that journey. The anatomy of each piece can captivate the viewer with every stitch and pattern, but nothing compares to overhearing the cultural conversation had by all of the works in tandem. Each canvas displaying a path from a distant future to an uncharted and uncertain future.
“Friendly Paths” by Kwesi O. Kwarteng will be on display at Plato gallery until May 11. For more info, visit kwesiokwarteng.com and platogallery.com.