Japheth Asiedu-Kwarteng: Burden of Proof

Asiedu-Kwarteng is a mixed media artist based in Edinburg, Texas, who primarily works in ceramics. He holds a BA in Industrial Art (Ceramics option) from KNUST, Ghana, and an MFA in Ceramics from Illinois State University, USA. Since 2022, he has worked as a Lecturer in the School of Art and Design at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (Edinburg, Texas), teaching Ceramics 1, Intermediate Ceramics, Design II, and Art Appreciation.

Asiedu-Kwarteng’s works are largely inspired by traditional Ghanaian symbolism. His research and creative practice are inspired by Kente and its history in materiality (expanding its symbolism) and explore the communicative potential of fabric and fibers to discuss movement, transition, and navigation of tangible and intangible foreign spaces.

For this exhibition, he intends to exhibit an artwork including over 140 elements inspired by his personal use of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services  website, which he uses as an immigrant himself, as well as for his family. It will also include mixed media ceramic sculptures that incorporate traditional Ghanaian Kente fabric designs.

Japheth is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics, Artaxis and National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA). He has exhibited his works extensively in Ghana and the United States including in the 2022 and 2021 NCECA Annual and Multicultural Fellowship exhibitions. His works have been exhibited in Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA; Blue Line Arts, Roseville, CA; Weston Art Gallery, Cincinnati, OH; DAAP Galleries, Cincinnati, OH; University Galleries, Normal, IL; Taylor Gallery, Newark, DE; Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia, PA; and Rachel Cooper Gallery, Normal, IL. Japheth has works in the permanent collections of the University Galleries, Normal, Illinois and other private collectors in the United States.

This exhibition is generously funded in part by awards from the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Beaumont, the Wesley W. Washburn, M.D. and Lulu L. Smith, M.D. Endowment Fund, the C. Homer and Edith Fuller Chambers Charitable Foundation, Jefferson County and the members of the Art Museum of Southeast Texas.

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