Anya Paintsil
b. 1993, United Kingdom
Based in Chester, Anya Paintsil is a Welsh and Ghanaian artist working primarily with textiles. Frequently using weaves, braids and other hair pieces (as well as her own hair), Paintsil laces debates around race and gender into the very fabric of her work.
Born 1993 in Wrexham, North Wales, Anya Paintsil is a Welsh and Ghanaian artist working primarily with textiles. From rug hooking to embroidery, her assemblages evoke tactile tapestry on the one hand, and constitute semi-sculptural interventions on the other. Playful and profound, flippant and forceful, her practice engages the language of fibres — of all kinds — with interrogations of materiality and political personhood.
Anya Paintsil made her London debut at Somerset House’s annual contemporary African art fair, 1-54, 2020. Within hours, the booth had sold out; certainly, one of Ed Cross Fine Art’s most successful exhibitions in its 13-year history. As well as private collectors, Anya has received sustained interest from public institutions. Recent acquisitions include the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea; The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester; Tullie House Museum, Carlisle, and the Women's Art Collection, Cambridge. Anya was awarded the prestigious Wakelin Prize 2020 (exhibited at the Glynn Vivian in 2021), and featured in Crafts Council Gallery's exhibition 'Maker's Eye', London, and at Salon 94 in New York, both 2021.