Artist brings traditional African wood sculpting to Kent State gallery

Artist Isaac Kwame Awuku will be demonstrating how to carve a traditional wooden sculpture Thursday at 2 p.m. in the Oscar Ritchie Hall art gallery.

“It’s going to be an exciting and engaging event,” said Cinnamon Small, graduate assistant for the department of Pan-African studies. “It’s quite refreshing to see how we can use the gallery in different ways.”

Kwame is known for both his sculptures and paintings. He explains it is important to tell a story through each piece of artwork he creates.

“You must have a subject before you have a painting,” Kwame said about his artwork.

He said a wood carving is like a lost art. Today artists are using drills and power tools, but Kwame prefers to use traditional African tools, which include chisels and gauges.

Kwame will be using these traditional African tools for his demonstration Thursday.

Contact Candice Dungan at [email protected].