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'It’s definitely a big deal but not in a loud way,' says Gideon Appah of his debut exhibition with Pace Gallery in New York. The Ghanaian artist joined Pace, one of the world’s most prominent galleries, in 2022, and has had solo exhibitions in London and Seoul. The New York show, he says, 'does feel different', and being his first with the gallery in the city 'naturally carries weight, and I am trying to experience it as a continuation rather than a peak'.
The artist adds, 'Every show is a marker in an ongoing process. This one feels like an important chapter, especially because it allows me to present a body of work that reflects where my thinking is now, rather than revisiting something already resolved.' The exhibition, titled ‘Beneath Night and Day’, features a new body of work that includes paintings from Appah’s Swimmers and Surfers series, inspired by scenes from Busua Beach, west of Accra, where surfers, fishermen, and swimmers come together at the shoreline.
Appah graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi in 2012 and held his first solo show the following year at the Goethe-Institut in Accra. The artist, based in Accra, draws on Ghanaian popular culture and childhood memories in his paintings. His work is held in public collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Al Maaden in Marrakech, Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum, and the Absa Museum in Johannesburg.
We spoke with the artist to find out more.
Gideon Appah at Pace Gallery, New York
Gideon Appah, The Musician, 2025
Wallpaper*: Tell us about your Swimmers and Surfers series and its new direction?
Gideon Appah: The series began as an exploration of leisure, vulnerability, and freedom, bodies suspended between control and surrender. Over time, it has shifted. The figures remain, but the focus has expanded to atmosphere, memory, and psychological space. In this new direction, the water becomes less of a setting and more of a threshold. There’s a stronger sense of ambiguity between night and day, safety and risk, presence and disappearance. The paintings are quieter, but also more charged.
W*: What inspires you about surfers, fishermen, swimmers, and the seaside architecture at Ghana’s Busua and Kokrobite resorts?
GA: Busua and Kokrobite are places where work, rest, and ritual coexist naturally. Fishermen and surfers share the same waters but relate to them differently, one through survival, the other through play. That tension interests me. The seaside architecture, hotels, fishing shelters, and unfinished buildings feel provisional, almost temporary, like they’re responding to the rhythm of the ocean rather than imposing themselves on it. These environments carry layers of lived experience, aspiration, and memory, and I try to let those layers seep into the work.
Gideon Appah, Nocturne, 2023-2025
W*: What’s the thinking behind including some of your reference materials, such as movie stills, archival local Ghanaian newspaper clippings, and photographs, in the Pace show?
GA: I wanted to make the thinking and ideas behind the works more visible. These materials are part of my internal archive. They shape how I see and how I paint. Including them acknowledges that the work doesn’t emerge in isolation. Cinema, local histories, everyday imagery, and personal photographs inform it. Presenting these references alongside the finished works opens up a more honest conversation about process and influence.
Gideo Appah, Night Catch (Prise de Nuit), 2025
W*: What can you share about your support for the Ghanaian Art Scene?
GA: I am the largest individual donor to a major art foundation in Accra, which I am very proud of. I have been collecting artworks from several artists. So far, I have some major works from young Ghanaian artists and two international artists, which I keep in my studio. I collect a variety of art forms, including sculpture, painting, collage, photography, drawing, and installation. When I see the work, and I like it, I will buy it. From the beginning, I was able to purchase art supplies and paints to create my work and rent a studio, thanks to patrons who supported me and bought my pieces, mostly drawings. So, collecting art is a sure way to give back to the art community. I am also a supporting member of the BlaxTarlines Community, which is a programme committed to nurturing young artists and curators straight out of college, primarily alumni of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
‘Beneath Night and Day’ is on view at Pace Gallery New York until 28 February 2025, pacegallery.com
Gideon Appah, Young Masquerade, 2025