Congratulations to MFA candidate Henry Obeng receiving the 2022 Graduate Student Creative Arts Award from the UW-Madison Division of the Arts.
Henry is a Ghanaian born artist who received a BA in Fine Art from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, Ghana. Henry’s passion for Hand Papermaking led him to do his graduate work in Design Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Making use of hand papermaking and photographic processes, his graduate work has explored ideas informed by the natural world and his observations and experiences as an international person moving between cultures.
The first iteration of Henry Obeng’s thesis, titled The Trail, exhibited in the Ruth Davis Design Gallery in March 2020, explored his experience of being an international student during the covid lockdown. Henry was invited to join the diversity committee for the North American Hand Papermaking Association. He is currently a research assistant to Professor Mary Hark in Design Studies. Also, Henry was invited to apply for inclusion in the Hand Papermaking Magazine’s 14th portfolio of handmade paper, a highly regarded, international, bi-annual portfolio showcasing some of the best work in hand papermaking by artists.
Obeng will use the award to support The Trail. In this project, recycled Wisconsin Badger t-shirts are used as paper substrates, which are accompanied by photographic images of foreign botanical specimens.
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