As a body of work, the Sleep series deals with existential dread and the acute melancholia associated with depression - especially in bed. Deliberately heavy in contrast, the images present their artist as an anonymous muse. The series is an extension of the Awuah-Darko's ongoing Dear Artists series. Photographic print on archival paper; handwritten text. The prints (6x6cm) are mounted on a white matte board (12x12cm).

Joseph Awuah-Darko

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Interdisciplinary artist Joseph Awuah-Darko uses diverse mediums to process historic and autobiographical narratives. From the artist's expansive Kente textile works, melding his Asante heritage with Afrofuturism, to his series of oil stick paintings, charting his moods over a day’s span, Awuah-Darko’s practice is always grappling with the tensions between interior experience and external expression. Awuah-Darko's work features in major public and private collections including the Institute Museum of Ghana (Accra, Ghana), Stanley Museum of Art (Iowa, US), Frederic De Goldschmidts Collection (Brussels, Belgium), Nirox Foundation (South Africa), Naomi Campbell Collection (New York, US), Beth de Woody Collection (Palm Springs, US) and Collection EW (Munich, Germany). Recent solo exhibitions include Soft Landing, Nirox Foundation (South Africa, 2023); Mythical Negro, Jac Forbes (Malibu, US, 2023) and Bed of Roses, The Mix (Accra, Ghana, 2022). Group exhibition highlights include Form Comes to Mind, Anzai Gallery (Tokyo, Japan, 2024); Hand Over Hand: Textiles Today, Mindy Solomon (Miami, USA, 2023) and The Becoming, Peres Projects (Berlin, Germany, 2023). Besides his work as a visual artist, Awuah-Darko is a practicing curator, and the founder and director of Noldor Artist Residency in Accra, Ghana.