Rita Mawuena Benissan
Lives & Works in Accra, Ghana.
Rita Mawuena Benissan, a Ghanaian-American interdisciplinary artist, explores questions of culture, identity, and history through the reimagining of customary objects and in particular the royal umbrella. The umbrella is a well-known protective object that she has reinterpreted as a symbol of Ghanaian identity. By crafting a work that is part tapestry, part sculpture, Benissan reconfigures the role of the umbrella from an object symbolic of history and tradition to an item that grapples with questions of memory and identity. She is creating the embodiment of the beauty and power of individuals and communities through fabrication and design.
Benissan has shown at the 2022 Dak'Art - Biennale de l'Art Africain Contemporain, the IFAN Museum of African Arts, Dakar, and in the group show EFIE: Museum as Home, Dortmunder U, Dortmund. She is the Founder of Si Hene, a foundation that focuses on preserving Ghana's chieftaincy and longstanding traditional cultures.
Rita Mawuena Benissan will be presented by Gallery 1957.
Rita Mawuena Benissan, Don’t you see that a procession is coming_ III (Wunhu sɛ santen bi reba_ III), 2023, Tapestry and Embroidering on Velvet, 200 x 200 cm. Courtesy of Gallery 1957.
