Amma “Gifty” Ohenewaa was born in 1966 in Ghana’s capital of Accra. In 1989, she left her country and moved to France where she took up painting. Her talent has remained hidden ever since.

Childhood memories leave Gifty with vivid images and haunting flashbacks. She recalls a withdrawn mother but also a rich and powerful father who deemed her unworthy of an education. Having been deprived of such a privilege, Gifty learned to hold in her anger. Such repressed feelings made her yearn for a passion which became the urge to paint.

Her freedom today manifests through a clash of colors and forms. Each of her works seems to be larger in size. Silenced as a child and inevitably taking on the role of mother to her siblings, her art ultimately allows her to reveal herself and say all that she has been wanting to say. Little did she know, creation is rooted in her identity.

Gifty paints day after day. She paints and forgets the notion of time with the time that has passed. Her escape in her art is as similar and innocent to the way she once ran at her father’s side. Though admitting a daughter’s love for her father would mean betraying her own pride and strength, she would come to recognize that these were qualities she inherited directly from this man.

Her paintings consist of many subjects; bodies without flesh, deformed faces, an expressionless mother and child. Yet she also paints bodies of lovers intertwined in a sensual dance. Violent streaks of color and deep blacks convey suffering. One senses a lack of affection and the feeling of absence. In her bright and intense colors, there is vitality and strength. Even if the ghosts of her past haunt her to this day, life goes on for Gifty.

It was a question of time before she chose to reveal herself. Several encounters and decades later, she finally exhibits her work for others to view and interpret. The unwanted child she once was is now an artist acknowledging both her name and calling.