Michael Gah

Artist, born 1995 in Accra, Ghana

Michael Gah works with fabric. More precisely, with discarded textiles that others have thrown away. What he creates from them is not still life — it’s visual intervention. Against textile waste, against superficial ideals of beauty, against forgetting.

Gah grew up just a few meters from the ocean, on a beach increasingly swallowed by fabric waste. What others ignored became his artistic fuel. He began learning from local artists at an early age, selling his first pieces on the streets of Accra, observing his environment, and searching for a visual language that could respond to it.

To this day, he sources materials from Kantamanto Market and from his friend’s tailoring shop, Fenz Fashion Limited. With the help of his mother, who selects and prepares the fabrics, Gah creates figurative portraits and scenes of everyday life — sometimes quiet, sometimes direct, but always composed with clarity. Women often take center stage. Strong, grounded, unapologetically present. They reflect the reality of his upbringing, his family, and his community.

Each piece is a commentary on the state of the world. Not by shouting — but through intimacy. Gah portrays couples, friendships, family bonds. He gives textile excess a second life — and brings human dignity back into focus.

To date, Michael Gah has sold over 60 works. His art has been exhibited in South Africa, Ghana, France, and the United Kingdom. His studio in Accra is a space where textile memory, digital aesthetics, and ecological awareness come together.