“A lot of our artists are happy that we represent them because we are similar. As Africans, we understand the story they are telling and who they are talking to,” Kwame Mintah, Ghanaian cultural entrepreneur, art collector and co-founder of Ife Contemporary Gallery in Dubai, tells the Observer. “There can be a disconnect between the person who is selling and what is being sold.” In 2021, Kwame, his brother Kobe, and their mother Valentina opened Efie Gallery with the aim of supporting and showcasing the work of artists from Africa and the Middle East diaspora. Since then, they have extended the mission. “A lot of times, what it means to be an international artist is that you show your work in New York… and the Middle East has been almost ignored,” he says. “Even for our older artists – María Magdalena Campos Ponce, El Anatsui, Abdoulaye Konate – this is a new area opened up for them. As for the younger artists, the moment they show their work here, they become international artists.”
Effie Gallery hosted two solo exhibitions for the first time in the Middle East by renowned multidisciplinary Afro-Cuban artist Campos Ponce and Malian icon Konate in April 2025 and October 2024, respectively. The gallery hosted Anatsui’s first solo exhibition in Dubai in March 2020 and also the first exhibition dedicated to the work of pioneering Ghanaian photographer JK Bruce Vanderpueghe (1899-1989) in December 2023. The Ife Gallery also represents London-based Nigerian artist Sloane, Ghanaian artist Yaw Owusu, Kenyan sculptor Maggie Otieno, and Ethiopian photographer Aida Muluneh, whose solo show will run until April. 5.
Creating an exhibition wasn’t necessarily something Kwame planned to do. It happened inadvertently after the Mintah family was invited to participate in the Pan-African Festival, an annual event that celebrates everything from the continent including fashion, music, food, film and photography. Kwame and Kobe considered showcasing rare vinyl records from around the world – pieces they had been collecting for years – before expanding the idea to include a visual arts exhibition as part of the festival.
In October 2021, a show curated by the Afia brothers Owosua Afriyie opened at Emaar’s Plaza Tower in a site-specific pavilion designed by Ghanaian architect Alice Asafo Adjaye, featuring works by Anatsui, Owusu, Otieno, Sloan, Betty Akua, Isaac Ismail, Larry Otto, Teresa Ankoma, Chrisa Amoah, Kwaku Yaro and James. Parnor. The exhibition was well received and extended beyond its initially scheduled three days, and this success inspired the family to open a gallery. “Efie” means “home” in the Ghanaian language, and the Mintah family discussed opening a bookstore in Ghana, where they founded e-Ananse Bookshop, a bookstore that focuses on African literature and also hosts live literary events in East Legon and Acra Central. They ultimately chose Dubai instead, citing the region’s potential to raise the profile of established and emerging artists and expand their practice. It was also an opportunity to promote cultural exchange and highlight the shared values – such as the idea of community – that exist between Africa and the Middle East.
Effie Gallery opened a permanent space in March 2022 on Al Khayyat Street, an art hub, and nearly three years later it moved to a new, two-story, 4,400-square-foot space that includes a 1,500-square-foot main exhibition area on the ground floor with 30-foot ceilings for large-scale works on Alserkal Street, an arts and culture district. The gallery has grown into a leading institution representing and supporting contemporary art from Africa and the diaspora, with programs including exhibitions, a residency program, participation in art fairs, and the Record Gallery, which displays thousands of vinyl and shellac records dating from the 1940s to the present, collected by Kwame and Kubi. The space also hosts screenings of films from Africa in collaboration with Bootleg Griot, an independent public library project, along with a bookstore and café.
The Mintah family collects art, initially “more out of passion,” focusing on Ghanaian legends such as James Barnor and Ablad Glover. The collection has since expanded significantly to include works by artists from across the African continent and its diaspora – including African-American and black British artists – that “resonate with our identity,” says Kwame, in keeping with the gallery’s aim to “expand what people see as African art.”
Kwame and Kobe also collect vinyl. Several years before setting up Efie Gallery, they planned to launch a reissue label called Efie Records, with the aim of making vintage albums by African artists and bands – among them Nana Kwame Ampadu, Opambuo International Band and AB Crentsil – available on streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. With their mother’s support, the brothers landed a deal with Crentsil’s Super Sweet Talks International. But the murky world of music rights and licensing, especially for deceased bands and artists, forced them to postpone that dream. “We were young at the time and realized it was completely different,” Kwame recalls. “We said, ‘Well, we don’t really want to go that route,’ so we almost killed that idea but we still amassed a very large vinyl record collection.”
In 2017, Kobe purchased a reissue of a record by Ghanaian highlife legend Ebo Taylor, which marked the beginning of the brothers’ vinyl collecting journey. About two years later, Kwame heard an Afro-funk song called “Only You” by pioneering Nigerian singer-songwriter Steve Monett at a friend’s house and assumed it was by an American artist. “When I heard this song, I was like, what is this?… So I started researching. And I said, ‘Okay, how can I get these songs?’… That immediately opened my mind to what was out there especially on the African continent. And that’s what started my vinyl collecting journey.” Over the course of about seven years, the brothers collected more than 2,000 vinyl records, most of them by artists from Africa.
Effie Gallery’s latest exhibitionShape of things to come“, curated by Japan-based American curator Dexter Wimberly, and included works by Americans Carrie Mae Weems and Adam Pendleton. “We’ve been very purposeful in our work of presenting African American artists as Africans, in presenting Egyptian artists as Africans, and in presenting black British artists as Africans because we really want to make sure that people understand how vast Africa is as a continent and how influential we are. “A lot of times when people say African artists are new, they ignore that African artists have been part of the story forever,” says Kwame, a Tate Africa Collections board member. “We really want to help change that narrative and people’s mindset about what African art is and expand the genre so that African artists can be as bold or risk-taking as their counterparts.”
Next up at Effie Gallery in Dubai is the exhibition “In Abstracto, In Concreto” curated by Bryce Arsène Yoncu, which frames contemporary practices that expand both photography and abstraction. The exhibition is scheduled to open on May 21, and will feature paintings and works on paper by Lagos-born, US-based artist Luke Agada; London-born, New York-based Nigerian artist Tunji Adeniyi Jones; Cameroonian-born, US-based artist Ludovic Nkothe; And Gabonese artist Naila Obianga, who lives in New York and Accra.
The gallery will participate in this year’s Art Dubai (now postponed to mid-May) with a group show featuring works by Abdoulaye Konate, María Magdalena Campos Ponce, Yaw Owusu, Maggie Otieno, Aida Muluneh, Samuel Fosu and Kaylani Abbas. One of the leading artists selected by the late curator Koyo Koh, a collection of works by Campos Ponce will be on display at the Giardini as part of this year’s Venice Biennale. “We want to continue to elevate our artists. If an artist says Efie Gallery represents them, we want that to mean something in the way we support them and also in the creative space,” says Kwame. “And like an art collector’s stamp of approval, you don’t even have to see the work of an artist represented by the gallery; you know you’re getting high-quality work.”
More technical interviews
