Chat with Nana Anoff (West African Abstract Artist and Painter)

It’s a beautiful day with clear skies, (not to sound cliché, but it truly is) and in the life of the Ghanaian born visual artist and painter, Nana Anoff, it’s an extremely busy day.
He’s working on new pieces and I’m very curious about the outcome because from where I sit I can see unfinished table stools and glass waiting to be measured and cut, wood, Nana’s signature metal objects with which he fashions some of his masterpieces as well as some slightly scary looking welding and drilling machinery. I know better than to drag a man from his work which he is very passionate about, and so I go grab some bread and tea to while away time.

After an hour or two, the man of the moment is ready to talk, but not before he quickly grabs a few bites of waakye, a famous Ghanaian delicacy off his brother, Panji’s plate. Yes, same Panji Anoff of Pidgen music fame and one of the best sound engineers and music maker this side of the planet. It is safe to say creativity runs deep in this household.
Nana is finally ready and I find it hard to stop smiling because I have an inkling of how mischievous this seemingly innocent looking talent can be.

We start off talking about his reason for becoming an artist to which Nana laughs and confesses he came into his present field as a result of a serious financial challenge in 1996. According to him, he and a few close friends and family organized an art event which flopped. The financiers of the event were not sympathetic and applied pressure on Nana and his friends to refund the money they invested in the project. His next and only option was to start painting and equally selling those paintings.
Eventually, he successfully raised the money through this means and realized he wanted to continue in that path.
I ask him about his childhood and smiles as he talks extensively about his grandmother, of blessed memory whom he attributes his major influence to. ‘I was raised by my grandmother’, he says, ‘she was a diligent woman who raised her children and grandchildren trading kerosene sponges’. ‘She acquired many properties due to her hardworking and diligent nature’, he adds with a measure of pride.

He added that asides his grandmother, other women who surrounded him, as a young boy also influenced his paintings which chiefly portray African women as intelligent, strong and independent. I commend him for this, to which he smiles and declares proudly, ‘I am a feminist’.
His grandmother encouraged him to follow in his father’s footsteps, and become a physician, but Nana was not so inclined even though he tried. He is quick to laugh about his poor grades at school which were unable to qualify him to be a medical doctor, and admits to knowing in his heart that he could not become a good one, because he was a rebel who always broke rules, norms and laid-down procedures.
A self taught artist, Nana got his big break when the Italian ambassador to Ghana, also an artist, got to know about his work through his wife who stumbled on Nana’s works while she came to buy flowers from his family horticultural garden.
The ambassador, who was highly impressed with the quality of Nana’s work offered to organize his first exhibition at the Novotel hotel Accra, which coincided with an African soccer competition at that time. This gave him more prominence, as most of Africa’s brightest soccer stars who lodged at the hotel for the duration of the soccer competition became fans of his work.
Presently, the collectors of Nana’s works also include President Obama of the U.S.A and his wife Michelle, Will Smith, and a host of other art collectors. His works have also being displayed on American TV shows such as Girlfriends, and The Parkers.
His career highlights include winning the LEASAFRIC Ghana Bartimeus prize, winning the prize for second place in the Quest-Africanne at the West African regionale conference, being called upon to design the Kofi Annan peace keeping centre, his commissioning to design the new Dutch embassy, amongst others.
At this point I tease him on being very rich because his paintings must cost the proverbial arm and leg, to which he laughs and says the prices of his works are fixed by his wife who doubles as his ‘managerial adviser’. His own part of the whole affair, according to him, is to bring out his emotions, feelings, and imaginations to life through his art. The rest is left to ‘them’, he says modestly, referring to his small army of workers and apprentices who constantly surround him.
I ask Nana if he has had embarrassing moments in the course of his job to which he regales me with an hilarious incident which I would spare you, the kind reader hahaha, but please do not mischievously spike this brilliant artist’s ice-cream with alcohol if you ever run into him, the results might be ‘interesting’ to watch.
On advising young and/or up and coming visual artists, he says ‘Always break the rules, with the exception of the law (we laugh at the joke), follow your heart and don’t be dictated to about your work’.
I ask him if he has any last words, and he asks me if I have found a boyfriend in Ghana. I chuckle and shake my head in the negative. He tells another joke and I shake my head in exasperation.
I feed my eyes yet again in his gallery for a while before I take my leave. The day is beautiful still, with clear skies.

Check out the pictures from his gallery, and find more of his works on www.nanoffgallery.com
Cheers and thanks for reading!