Nii Obodai Sold at Auction Prices

b. 1963 -

Francis Nii Obodai Provençal (b.1963) is a Ghanaian photographer based in Accra, Ghana and Maputo, Mozambique. Throughout his career, Obodai has documented the diversity of the world through photography, audio and text. He is particularly proud to record Africa and celebrate the unseen and alluring perspectives of the continent. Obodai’s work mainly explores urban and rural culture, while capturing the dynamic reality of our environment. He relishes telling stories about the people he meets and has a compelling interest in the past, recounted through environmental and oral histories. He regards his visual practice as activism, illustrating the impact humanity is having on the environment.

In 1998 he established Nuku Café in Accra, a vibrant space for contemporary artists committed to a socially- and politically-conscious practice. It has evolved into Nuku Studio, which engages in collaborative academic research projects and organises an annual programme of workshops developing photographic and visual communication skills.

Obodai’s work has been has been exhibited at the Addis Ababa Festival (Ethiopia), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA), Bamako Encounters (Bamako, Mali), Alliance Française (Accra, Ghana), Victoria & Albert Museum (London, UK), Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester, UK) The Centro Cultural Franco-Moçambicano (Mozambique) and Moesegaard Museum (Aarhus, Denmark).

About Surroundings
Obodai is currently artist-in-residence in the East Riding of Yorkshire, developing an exhibition for Beverley Art Gallery. The residency is part of Surroundings, a three-year partnership project between Humber Museums Partnership and Invisible Dust, that includes international public art commissions with an environmental theme. Each year has a different but interrelating theme – food, migration and landscape. Funded by Arts Council England through Ambitions for Excellence and Wellcome Trust Sustaining Excellence.