Martin Hall Exhibition Workshop #2: Atta Kwami Gateway
See the restoration work in progress on Atta Kwami's sculpture.
Atta Kwami's sculpture Atsiaƒu ƒe agbo nu (Gateway to the sea) has been a much loved feature of Shirley Pearce Square since 2022. Originally commissioned for the Folkestone Triennial in 2021, it is one of the last works Kwami produced in his lifetime, and is now on long-term loan to the University.
In order to prolong the sculpture's life, LU Arts and Pamela Clarkson Kwami have arranged for it to undergo a thorough programme of restoration. This is being undertaken by Andy Philpott, who worked with Atta Kwami on the original work. You are welcome to view the progress of this work through the gallery's windows, although we ask that you do not enter the space without prior permission.
Atta Kwami was born in Accra, Ghana, in 1956, and across four decades produced a large body of paintings, sculptures, prints and publications. He received a PhD from the Open University in 2007, and taught in Nigeria and Ghana. After meeting the artist Pamela Clarkson in the early nineties, he divided his time between Ghana's second city Kumasi and Loughborough. His work can be found in the collections of the National Museum of Ghana, the V&A, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in Washington D.C. The National Museum of Kenya, and the British Museum. Shortly before his death in 2021 he was awarded the prestigious Maria Lassnig Prize, resulting in a new public mural and monograph in association with London's Serpentine Gallery.
With thanks to Pamela Clarkson Kwami and Andy Philpott.
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Sculpture Collection
If you are planning on coming to campus to see the work in progress, then why not explore our sculpture collection, which this work is part of. There are over 40 sculptures dotted around campus, dating from the 1950s to the present day, including works by Lynn Chadwick, Bernard Schottlander and Margaret Traherne.