Samuel Sowatey (b. 1997) is a self-taught Ghanaian painter from Accra who began making art in 2012, while still at school. In 2022 he took part in “Contemporary African Art: The Dreams and Realities of Identity” at the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, and a painting of his entered the Alberto and Ginette Rebaza collection as an acquisition award at Pinta Miami. His figurative, often portrait-based paintings explore contemporary African identity and self-representation.
Samuel Sowatey (b. 1997, Accra, Ghana) is a Ghanaian painter. He is self-taught and began making art in 2012 while still at secondary school, experimenting with materials he prepared himself. After finishing school he worked in his grandfather’s carpentry workshop, saving money to continue painting, and turned to art full-time around 2016–2017. His first significant exhibition took place at Omanye House Gallery in Ghana. Sowatey’s figurative paintings address contemporary African identity and self-representation, often through portraiture. His work has been shown at Arushi Gallery in Los Angeles and at ArtVilnius, and in 2022 he took part in the exhibition “Contemporary African Art: The Dreams and Realities of Identity”, organised with TUMO Gallery at the Lithuanian National Museum of Art in Vilnius. The same year a painting by Sowatey was selected for the Alberto and Ginette Rebaza collection as an acquisition award at Pinta Miami. The acrylic paintings “Lady with Hat” (2022), “My World” (2021) and “Red Roses” (2021), offered by TUMO Gallery, are characteristic of his portrait-based practice.
