Crabe - 1994/1995

70 x 150 x 107 cm
Enamel paint on wood

FILET DE PECHE BLEU - 1997

53 x 119 x 60 cm
Enamel paint on wooden coffin

Hors bord Yamaha (Outboard motor Yamaha) - 1997

73 x 138.5 x 37 cm
Enamel paint on wooden coffin

Mercedes coffin - 1993

67 x 210 x 77 cm
Enamel paint on wood

Onion coffin (Oignon vert) - 1993

88 x 270 x 33 cm
Enamel paint on wood

Onion coffin (Oignon vert) - 1993

88 x 270 x 33 cm
Enamel paint on wood

Rabot - 1997

85 x 46 x 121.5 cm
Enamel paint on wooden coffin

Running shoe - 1997

53 x 56 x 130 cm
Enamel paint on wood

Truelle - 1997

65 x 57 x 145 cm
Enamel paint on wood

Samuel Kane Kwei

Born 1954, Teshie, Ghana

Lives and works in Teshie, Ghana

Samuel Kane Kwei upholds his father’s tradition of decorating coffins in a manner which reflect upon the life of the deceased. Kane Kwei (1922-1992) was trained as a cabinet maker, and in 1951 he opened his own workshop in Teshie, a fishing village on the outskirts of Accra. He built his first decorated coffin—in the shape of a dugout—for one of his uncles, a fisherman who had owned flotilla of them. He dedicated himself from then on to this new funerary art and worked, secluded, almost exclusively for the elders of his clan. The art dealer Vivian Burns introduced his work to American audiences in 1974; over the last thirty years his sculptures and those of his workshop have made an original contribution to the tradition of funerary cults in Western Africa—they have also been collected and exhibited internationally.

Samuel was trained in his father’s workshop, along with other apprentices, and he has made coffins that closely follow his father’s prototypes. For example, Kane Kwei had first carved an onion-shaped coffin for one of the village elders who had made a fortune in growing onions, a staple of the local diet, and Samuel has continued to produce coffins in this form. Another popular form that has been carried down from father to son is that of a white Mercedes Benz, originally conceived as a coffin for an owner of a fleet of taxis, but also used for other wealthy customers. However, Samuel Kane Kwei has also explored other possibilities, creating sculptures that reflect upon more up-to-date aspects of popular culture and daily life. He has also worked freely for more Western clients, creating sculptures that are not intended for funerary use.

With contributions from Thierry Secretan

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2000

Ein Fisch für die letzte Ruhe, Museum auf dem Ohlsdorfer Friedhof, Hamburg, Germany

1998

Patchwork in Progress 3 – Samuel Kane Kwei, Sculptures

MAMCO (Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Genève)

Geneva - Switzerland

1994

Fantastic after-life vehicles from Ghana !

Ernie Wolfe Gallery

Los Angeles - USA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2014

Luminós/C/ity.Ordinary Joy: From the Pigozzi Contemporary African Art Collection, Ethelbert Cooper Gallery of African & African American Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

2011/2012

Postmodernism, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK

2009

3 Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

The Garage Center for Contemporary Culture

Moscow - Russia

2005

African Art Now : Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection

Museum of Fine Arts Houston

Houston - USA

2003

Ghana d’hier et aujourd’hui

Musée Dapper

Paris - France

2002 - 2003

Africanishe Reklamekunst

Iwalewa Haus der Universität Bayreuth

Bayreuth – Germany

München Stadtmuseum

Munich - Germany

2002 – 2005

Travelling exhibition

African Art, African Voices : Long Steps Never Broke a Back

7 Feb – 19 May 2002

Seattle Art Museum

Seattle – USA

2 Oct 2004 – 2 Jan 2005

Philadelphia Museum of Art

Philadelphia – USA

12 Feb – 19 June 2005

Wadsworth Atheneum

Hartford - USA

2001

Ich bin mein Auto – Die maschinalen Ebenbilder des Menschen

Staatlichen Kunsthalle

Baden-Baden - Germany

2001

Un Art Populaire

Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, Paris. France.

1998

Africa Africa : Vibrant New Art from a Dynamic Continent.

Tobu Museum of Art

Tokyo - Japan

1997

Wie das Leben, so der Sarg...

Nam June Paik

Ifa - Galerie Bonn.

Bonn - Germany

Ifa - Galerie Stuttgart

Stuttagart - Germany

1996

Design im Wandel

Herausgegeben von Alessandro Mendini ÛBERSEE Museum

Bremen - Germany

1996

Neue Kunst aus Africa

Haus der Kulturen der Welt

Berlin - Germany

1994

Kane Kwei / Nam June Paik

Galerie A. Benamoou et Ph. Gravier

Paris, France

1993

Curiosités et Merveilles

Chateau de Oirron, Monument historiques et Centre d'Art

Oiron, France

1993

Skissen eines Projektes

AUSSTELLUNG Auf der Suche : Afrika

Afrika Im Ludwig Forum für internationale Kunst

1991

Africa Explores:

20th Century African Art

New Museum of Contemporary Art

New York - U.S.A.

Dallas Museum of Art

Dallas - U.S.A.

Saint Louis Art Museum,

Saint Louis - U.S.A.

Mint Museum of Art

U.S.A

1990

WAAAAH –A Far African Art

Contrai, Belgium

1989

Magiciens de la Terre

Centre Georges Pompidou

La Grande Halle de la Villette

Paris - France

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

2010

Bonetti, Roberta, 2010. "Alternate Histories of the Abebuu Adekai", in: African Arts, Bd. Autumn 2010

2009

Bonetti, Roberta "Abebuu adekai chez les Ga du Ghana. Un regard anthropologique sur l’image", in Histoire de l'art et anthropologie, Paris, coédition INHA / Musée du quai Branly («Les actes»), 2009.

2008

Tchumi, The buried treasures of the Ga. Coffin Art in Ghana Benteli, 2008

2006

Six Feet Under. Autopsy of Our Relation to the Dead. Kerber, Bielefeld & Leipzig 2006, pp. 114–25.

2005

Africa Art Now: Masterpieces from the Jean Pigozzi Collection

Exhibition catalogue. Published by Merrell in association with the MFAH.

2003

Ghana: hier et aujourd’hui

Exhibition catalogue. Musée Dapper.

2002

Afrikanische Reklamekunst

Exhibition catalogue by Tobias Wendle. Published by Peter Hammer.

2002

Art from Africa : Long Steps Never Broke a Back

Exhibition catalogue. Published by the Seattle Art Museum in conjunction with Princeton University Press.

2001

Ich bin mein Auto – Die maschinalen Ebenbilder des Menschen

Exhibition catalogue. Verlag der Buchlandlung Walther König, Köln, Staaliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden und Autoren.

2001

Un Art Populaire

Exhibition catalogue. Text in French. Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain.

1998

Africa Africa : Vibrant New Art from a Dynamic Continent.

Exhibition catalogue: Toshio Shimizu et al.

1997

Wie das Leben, so der Sarg...

Exhibition catalogue. Nam June Paik. Text in German.

Intitut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart. Thierry Secrétan, André Magnin and Iris Lenz.

1996

Afrika : Neue Kunst aus Afrika

Exhibition catalogue. Edition Braus, Heidelberg.

1996

Contemporary Art of Africa

Kane Kwei by Jean-Hubert Martin. Text in English . André Magnin and Jacques Soulillou eds.

1994

Il fait sombre, va t’en

Cercueils au Ghana. Text & photogaphy by Thierry Secretan. Text in French.

Edition : Hazan.

1993

Skissen eines Projektes, AUSSTELLUNG Auf der Suche : Afrika

Afrika Im Ludwig Forum, catalogue. Texte en allemand.

1993

KUNSTFORUM AFRICA IWALEWA International (122)

AFRIKANISCHE KUNST HEUTE BOOK

Texte A.Magnin p.165 –Kane Kwei p.278– p.279.

1991

Susan Vogel, "New functional art: future traditions", in Africa Explores: 20th-century African art, pp.94–113. New York: Center for African Art; Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1991.

1989

Magiciens de la terre

Exhibition catalogue. Jean-Hubert Martin, Mark Francis, André Magnin et al.