Adelaide Damoah


British-Ghanaian artist Adelaide Damoah works at the intersection of painting and performance within the context of colonialism, identity, sexuality and spirituality. After studying applied biology at Kingston University London, her subsequent career in the pharmaceutical industry was cut short following a diagnosis of the chronic illness endometriosis. While convalescing, she dedicated herself to art.

Damoah's current practice involves using her body as a "living paintbrush" to paint or print onto various surfaces. Initially inspired by a desire to subvert Yves Klein's "Anthropometries," in which he directed a group of women to cover their nude bodies in his signature Blue paint and then imprint themselves on white paper, Damoah prints her body onto white surfaces, thereby remixing Klein's original performance through her own identity and encouraging discussion about female representation, feminism, sexual stereotypes and art history. Combining her body prints with found images, text and gold, she also explores her personal family history and Britain's colonial past with Ghana in her work.

Damoah describes her practice as "generating a spontaneous communi(cati)on between myself and an audience using a performance in which I function as a channel by which a recorded history of what was previously known but became unknown in the past becomes uncannily known again in the present, only to become unknown again at the end of the performance. Each of my performances is a mythopoetic product of organic processes which depend not only on the different modes of my body's sensory perception of unambiguous (i.e. explicit and literal) and ambiguous (i.e. implicit and metaphorical) processes and events taking place in my multisensory perceptions of the sensible world; but also on the individual (mental and bodily sensory) and collective (cultural) memory-images I derive from both these different modes of perception and my diasporic experiences. "

Damoah cites Judy Chicago, Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hammons, Yves Klein, Sokari Douglas Camp, Rachel Ara and Ana Mendieta among her main influences. She is a founding member of the Black British Female Artists (BBFA) Collective and the Intersectional Feminist Art (InFems) Collective. Damoah currently lives in London, UK.


Available Works


Adelaide Damoah: It's 3am and one of the most intense, spiritual, divinely feminine, creative, sexual experiences just happened in my brain while I slept off the pain (Part 1)

It's 3am and one of the most intense, spiritual, divinely feminine, creative, sexual experiences just happened in my brain while I slept off the pain (Part 1)

Adelaide Damoah

2021

Pigment on canvas

60 1/4 x 40 1/8 in | 153 x 102 cm

Adelaide Damoah: Moon cycle, period, full moon. This week, I have simultaneously experienced intense pleasure and excruciating pain

Moon cycle, period, full moon. This week, I have simultaneously experienced intense pleasure and excruciating pain

Adelaide Damoah

2021

Pigment and spray paint on wooden board

47 6/10 x 75 6/10 in | 121 x 192 cm

Adelaide Damoah: The pain took me to another place with the pleasure and it was a magical beautiful creative womb space

The pain took me to another place with the pleasure and it was a magical beautiful creative womb space

Adelaide Damoah

2021

Pigment on canvas

47 1/4 x 72 in | 120 x 183 cm

Adelaide Damoah: Where my whole body came more alive than it ever has been but only in my mind

Where my whole body came more alive than it ever has been but only in my mind

Adelaide Damoah

2021

Pigment and spray paint on canvas

29 9/10 x 29 9/10 in | 76 x 76 cm

Adelaide Damoah: Moonlit Power

Moonlit Power

Adelaide Damoah

2021

Pigment and ink on canvas

74 8/10 x 78 3/4 in | 190 x 200 cm

Adelaide Damoah: Softly, gently, slowly

Softly, gently, slowly

Adelaide Damoah

2021

Pigment and ink on hand made khadi paper

32 7/10 x 78 in | 83 x 198 cm

Adelaide Damoah: So that every part of you caresses every part of me

So that every part of you caresses every part of me

Adelaide Damoah

2021

Pigment and ink on hand made khadi paper

31 9/10 x 76 3/4 in | 81 x 195 cm

Adelaide Damoah: Olga

Olga

Adelaide Damoah

2018

Pigment and ink on hand made cotton rag paper

53 1/8 x 37 in | 135 x 94 cm

Adelaide Damoah: Marie-Therese

Marie-Therese

Adelaide Damoah

2018

Pigment and ink on hand made cotton rag paper

53 1/8 x 37 in | 135 x 94 cm


Exhibitions & Art Fairs

1-54 London 2023

1-54 London

Adelaide Damoah, Mbali Dhlamini, Amna Elhassan

12 - 15 October 2023

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1-54 London 2022

1-54 London

Adelaide Damoah, Nnenna Okore, Ghizlane Sahli, Katlego Tlabela

13 - 16 October 2022

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Adelaide Damoah: Radical Joy

Radical Joy

Adelaide Damoah

2 Dec 2021 - 29 Jan 2022

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1-54 London 2021

1-54 London

Osi Audu, Adelaide Damoah, Mbali Dhlamini, Sekai Machache

14 - 17 October 2021

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1-54 London 2020

1-54 London

Adelaide Damoah, Mbali Dhlamini, Owanto

8 - 10 October 2020

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Figures

Figures

Tega Akpokona, Adelaide Damoah, Mbali Dhlamini, Tagne William Njepe, Tim Okamura

18 Jun - 8 Aug 2020

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