Jubilation and duty

Emmanuel Opoku walks us through the development of his painting "New Father"

Emmanuel Opoku, “New Father,” 2023. Oil on canvas, 48”x36”. All photos courtesy Emmaanuel Opoku

Artist Emmanuel Opoku grew up in Ghana, where he says all broken objects have value. Ghanaians have a different relationship with their possessions than we do in the commodity-addled U.S.. He makes what he calls “symbolic portraits,” surreeal, funny paintings and assemblages that explore his subjects’ relationships to their things. His show, “We Ourselves Are Shared,” is up at ArtsWorcester through Feb. 25.

Here’s what Emmanuel shared about the evolution of his 2023 self-portrait, “New Father”:

“New Father” started when my daughter was born. I thought I should use my art to express my happy moments and archive a chapter in my life. In Rembrandt Van Rijn’s self-portraits, you see different stages of his life based on his countenance. For instance, in Rembrandt’s 1640 painting “Self-Portrait Age 34,” the artist’s face conveys a tragic state during a period when he lost three of his children.

For my face in “New Father,” I used objects that suggest my new role as a parent.

The painting began with a drawing on a primed canvas. I drew the whole image including the original shape of my head before I juxtaposed the still life composition of objects that tell my story. The tambourine suggests my jubilation at being a father for the first time. But half of my face is covered with a pewter tea mug, which suggests I’m also imagining my role in raising my daughter successfully. Metaphorically, as the pewter tea mug brews tea for a better taste, so do I think it’s my responsibility to raise a child for the better taste of our society.

This painting is a combination of still life and portraiture. Still life can be ranked low in importance in the history of painting, but as an artist who repurposes objects, still life is crucial to my thinking,