CRUNCH: The Exhibition as Pedagogical Situation

In this public conversation, Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh and Tamar Garb explore the work of blaxTARLINES KUMASI, an experimental incubator of contemporary art at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) spearheading the resurgence of young Ghanaian contemporary artists on the world stage.

KNUST is an outstanding example of progressive pedagogics in the arts with an open-ended, post-Western and experimental model of critical urban engagement.

‘The Exhibition as Pedagogical Situation’ is supported by the Global Engagement Fund initiative, 'Repairing historical collaborations between KNUST and UCL in The Bartlett Developmental Planning Unit (DPU) 70th anniversary' in collaboration with DPU, History of Art, UCL Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS), The Architectural Association, Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A), UCL Modern Heritage in the Anthropocene (MoHoA) initiative and the UCL Centre for Transnational and Global History.

This event is part of the inaugural CRUNCH Series at The Bartlett School of Architecture, replacing the International Lecture Series. Please note this event is first-come, first-served and is limited capacity. 

Speaker Biographies

Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh is a curator and critic based in Kumasi, Ghana. He is a key member of the blaxTARLINES coalition whose work is compelled by the radical hope proposed by the Ghanaian artist and academic, Kąrî'kạchä Seid'ou – to “transform art from the status of commodity to gift”. Kwasi’s work in the fields of pedagogy, criticism and curating includes teaching in the Department of Painting and Sculpture at KNUST in Kumasi, and organising the annual peer-led art school project, CritLab, since 2020 as a member of Exit Frame Collective in Ghana. He also co-organises Kelas Bareng, an experimental educational project managed between Gudskul, blaxTARLINES, Städelschule and Filmkunstskolen i Kabelvåg (FiK). Kwasi received the ACASA Award for Curatorial Excellence in 2021. He co-curated Orderly Disorderly (2017) in Ghana, the 12th edition of Bamako Encounters: Biennale of African Photography (2019–2020); Akutia: Blindfolding the Sun and the Poetics of Peace (A Retrospective of Agyeman Ossei ‘Dota’) (2020–2021); TRANSFER(S), Ibrahim Mahama’s solo exhibition in Germany and Ghana (2023); and the 35th edition of the Ljubljana Graphic Arts Biennale with Exit Frame Collective (2023-2024).

Tamar Garb is Durning Professor in the History of Art at UCL. She has published widely on questions of gender and sexuality in modern and contemporary art, African photography, women artists and feminist aesthetics. Her curatorial practice includes ‘Gauguin: Maker of Myth’ (Tate 2011), ‘Figures & Fictions: Contemporary South African Photography’, V&A, 2011, ‘Distance & Desire: Encounters with the African Archive’, Walther Coll. 2014, ‘Conversations in Letters & Lines: William Kentridge and Vivienne Koorland, Fruitmarket,2016, ‘Made Routes: Berni Searle and Vivienne Koorland’, Richard Saltoun Gallery, 2019 and ‘Beyond the Binary: Santu Mofokeng and David Goldblatt’, Walther Coll. 2023.

More information

Image: Ibrahim Mahama, TRANSFER(S), 2023. Courtesy of the artist and Kunsthalle Osnabrück.