Outcome for participation

SERGE ATTUKWEI CLOTTEY (B. 1985)  

Outcome for participation  

pastel and charcoal on paper in frame  

framed: 43 1/2 x 29 3/4 inches (110.5 x 75.5 cm)  

Executed in 2018.

PROVENANCE:  

Private collection, New York

EXHIBITED:  

London, Gallery 1957, Serge Attukwei Clottey 'DISTINCTIVE GESTURES,' August-September, 2021.

NOTES:  

Born in 1985 in Accra, Ghana, Serge Attukwei Clottey is a multidisciplinary artist celebrated for his expansive practice spanning installation, performance, sculpture, photography, and works on paper. He studied at the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Accra and has emerged as one of the leading voices of his generation within contemporary African art. Drawing deeply from the social and material realities of urban Ghana, Clottey’s work examines themes of migration, consumption, environmental transformation, and personal memory through a visual language that is both intimate and politically charged. Central to his practice is his ongoing concept of “Afrogallonism,” through which he repurposes discarded yellow oil containers ubiquitous throughout West Africa into complex meditations on trade, globalization, and survival.

While widely recognized for his monumental assemblages and public performances, Clottey’s works on paper reveal a more immediate and introspective dimension of his practice. In Outcome for Participation, executed in 2018, the artist employs pastel and charcoal to construct a psychologically resonant composition alive with gestural energy and fragmented figuration. The drawing’s layered surfaces and rhythmic mark-making evoke both vulnerability and resilience, echoing the improvisational quality that defines much of Clottey’s broader oeuvre. Faces and forms appear to emerge and dissolve within the composition, suggesting the fluidity of identity and collective experience in rapidly shifting social landscapes.

The work exemplifies Clottey’s ability to translate the tactile sensibility of his sculptural practice into two dimensions. His handling of charcoal and pastel produces a dynamic tension between softness and abrasion, intimacy and monumentality. Like his assemblage works composed of salvaged materials, Outcome for Participation reflects an ongoing interest in transformation—of objects, bodies, and histories—and in the traces left behind through human interaction and movement.

Clottey’s work has been exhibited internationally, with solo and group exhibitions at institutions including the Brighton Festival, the World Bank Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and Gallery 1957 in Accra and London. His work was featured in Venice Architectural Biennale in 2023, marking a significant moment in the global recognition of contemporary Ghanaian art. His works are held in numerous prominent public and private collections internationally. Outcome for Participation was exhibited in DISTINCTIVE GESTURES at Gallery 1957 in 2021.