Oscar Quarshie Nelson (b. 2000) is a Ghanaian painter who studied visual arts at Holy Trinity Cathedral Senior High School and honed his skills as a studio assistant to alumni of Ghannata College of Art and Design. Against bold, solid-coloured backgrounds he paints his brothers, friends and colleagues – the youth of Accra – giving their deep brown skin its glow by laying intertwined threads into thick, palette-knife oil paint.
b. 2000, Ghana
Oscar Quarshie Nelson studied visual arts at Holy Trinity Cathedral Senior High School before honing his skills as a studio assistant for alumni of the prestigious Ghannata College of Art and Design. After diligently learning from his colleagues and studying their practices, at the tender age of 22, he is now ready to add his compelling voice to the rich canon of the current evolving aesthetic of Ghanaian figurative portraiture.
Intrigued by human intuition and the innate connection humans have to nature, his paintings capture candid moments of calm where his subjects are in harmony with the natural world - "doing what they love doing". When asked why he likes to paint sunflowers, he expressed that they show how humans mimic the behavior of the tall plant by seeking sunlight for nourishment.
His painted figures, which stand out against a bold, solid-colored background, sit in a serene state of stillness or in action, exuding youthful insouciance. Their skin’s radiant luminosity and unique texture are achieved by delicately placing intertwined threads onto oil paint applied thickly with a palette knife. This distinguishing feature of Oscar’s paintings accentuates the beautifully deep brown tones of the African body, contrasting with the flat, lucid Western clothing.
Through his paintings, Oscar invites the viewer to witness intimate moments of self-care and undaunted expressions of self. The people he paints are those around him; they are his brothers, friends, and colleagues. They are an embodiment of Ghana's youth who are unapologetic in their conquest for the freedom to express their creativity through fashion, music, and art. Their audacious resistance to stifling stereotypes that threaten to dull their shine is characteristic of this era of societal evolution in Accra.
