<em>Lorry Station (Oh! Boys!)</em> detail, 2017. Oil on canvas, 122 x 152.5 cm.Red People III (detail), 2017. Oil on canvas, 122 x 152.5 cm.Yellow Forest I (detail), 2019. Oil on canvas, 102 x 102 cm.

ABLADE GLOVER: Wogbe Jeke - We Have Come a Long Way

4 July - 3 August 2019
Ablade Glover, Market Scene, 2019. Oil on canvas, 122 x 152.5 cm.
Ablade Glover, Jubilation IV 2018. Oil on canvas, 122 x 122 cm.

October Gallery celebrates Ablade Glover’s 85th birthday with an exhibition of vibrant new works by the artist. In a career spanning over five decades as an exhibiting artist, Ablade Glover is one of Ghana’s foremost painters. This new exhibition will showcase his adoration for the effervescent energy of Ghana.
As both an artist and an educator, Professor Ablade Glover has had an important impact on contemporary arts, helping shape the future of Ghana’s art scene through not only his own practice, but through his teaching at institutions in Kumasi, Ghana.
Ablade Glover’s paintings celebrate his passion for the colours and energy of Ghana. From bustling markets to trees bursting with yellow leaves, Glover’s paintings glow with movement and colour. Using a palette knife instead of a brush, he carves his way through paint in searing colours. In his paintings, hundreds of rapid marks create a thick carpet of glowing light and shade. 

As well as his fearless use of colour, it is Glover’s use of perspective that also draws the viewer in. Often the perspective that Glover employs is from a high vantage point overlooking the crowd. From this position, Glover effortlessly transports the viewer into the scene. Almost every single painting reveals a double aspect, being at once an explosion of colour and a detailed observation of reality. Abstract shapes transform into flocks of birds, bustling market scenes or townscapes.

Born in Accra in 1934, Ablade Glover occupies a significant place in Ghana’s contemporary art scene as both Founder and Director of the Artists Alliance Gallery. Trained in Ghana, Britain and the United States, Dr. Glover has accumulated a number of distinctions, which underline his significance as an artist and educator Until 1994 he was Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Art Education and Dean of the College of Art at the University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana. 
In 1998, Ablade Glover was awarded the Flagstar Award (the highest award for Arts in Ghana) by the ACRAG Ghana. In 2007 he was given the Ghana Order of the Volta (member) and in 2010 he was presented with the Millennium Excellence Award. He was awarded the Distinguished AFGRAD Alumni Award by the African-American Institute in New York and is a Life Fellow of the Royal Society of Art in London as well as a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Ablade Glover’s work is held in important collections worldwide including: AAI African American Institute Head Office, New York, USA; Africa Centre, London, UK; National Gallery of Modern Art, Lagos, Nigeria and the Royal Collection of Prince and Princess Takamado, Tokyo, Japan.

OCTOBER GALLERY ARTISTS