Araba Opoku (b. 1998) is an emerging multidisciplinary contemporary artist based in Accra, Ghana. She explores individuals’ mental health issues and how people are external in emotional states, be it domestic or infrastructural, from the outside perspective.
She is currently a student of the University of Ghana, Legon, pursuing a Bachelor’s in Psychology and Philosophy. She belongs to an art collective: Artemartis, where she serves as both an artist and its creative director at large. She has worked on art-focused fashion projects throughout her early career, aiming to change and evolve the mental landscape through the continent, which informs her textile-like painterly approach. Opoku educates children in orphanages on art and helps them contribute their talents.
She finds inspiration from figurative painters such as Nigerian artist Adebayo Bolaji and painter Francis Bacon, Bob Thompson and artist Joana Choumail. Araba has exhibited and worked with national and international companies and organizations, including Nubuke Foundation, Apple, Vlisco International. She is the first recipient of the inaugural Yaa Asantewaa Art Prize awarded by Gallery 1957. She recently had one of her works at the Arts x Lagos, and she will have her first solo exhibition in Accra at the ADA \ Contemporary Art Gallery next year, March 2022. She is currently the Visiting Fellow at the institution and confirmed as the Junior Fellow at Noldor for 2022 next year.