Things to Do at Artists Alliance Gallery
Complete Guide to Artists Alliance Gallery in Accra
About Artists Alliance Gallery
The Artists Alliance Gallery sits on Accra-Tema Beach Road in Labadi, occupying Omanye House. Prof. Ablade Glover built this three-storey structure with private funds in 2007. Kofi Annan opened it in 2008. Step inside. The Atlantic heat drops away. Cool marble floors replace humidity. Oil paint hangs faint in the air. Natural light pours across canvases on every wall.
Glover was born in Accra in 1934. He served as Dean of the College of Art at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. He wanted Ghanaian artists to have a serious space. They needed somewhere to show and sell work at home. Around eighty percent of the collection comes from Ghanaian artists. Every piece carries a fixed, clearly labelled asking price.
The mood shifts floor by floor. Ground-level rooms lean tactile and historical. Hand-woven Kente cloth covers walls. Carved hardwood furniture stands nearby. Appliqued Asafo flags crowd the space. Upstairs, the air opens. Paintings grow larger. Market scenes hang beside dense crowd compositions. Political satire and portraiture share wall space.
Visit on a quiet weekday morning. You might be alone. The place feels less like a gallery. It feels like wandering through someone's extraordinary private collection. The ocean glints through upper-floor windows. Ask the attendants. They will point you to a pool behind the building. Sit there. Decompress after an hour of looking.
What to See & Do
Ablade Glover's crowd paintings
Glover's signature works dominate entire walls upstairs. His staccato crowd scenes layer hundreds of shrouded figures. Thick impasto builds the surface. From a distance, it seems to shimmer. Step closer. Knife marks appear. Each stroke forms a separate body in the press. The palette favours earthy ochres. Deep indigos anchor the work. Sudden bursts of cadmium cut through. The canvases hum with compressed energy. They capture an Accra market at noon.
Fantasy coffins
Full-sized fantasy coffins scatter the ground floor. Crabs, running shoes, eagles. These shapes reflect the Ga tradition. The dead are buried in coffins that mirror how they lived. The craftsmanship stuns up close. Smooth lacquered shells catch light. Precisely jointed limbs articulate movement. Paint glosses so heavily it reflects gallery lights. They function as sculpture. They function as funerary object. First-time visitors stop mid-stride.
Asafo flags and Kente textiles
Textiles command an entire section. Asafo flags hang first. Fante military companies traditionally made these. Appliqued and embroidered symbols appear in bold primary colours. The stitching looks rough and deliberate. Hand-woven Kente cloth strips hang beside them. Tightly geometric patterns repeat. The threads carry a faint grassy smell from the loom. Run your eye along a single strip. Count dozens of colour shifts. Each one signifies something specific in Akan visual language.
Works by George Hughes and Owusu Ankomah
George Hughes greets you near the entrance. His painting Head and Time confronts visitors before orientation sets in. Hughes's figurative work runs contemplative. Muted tones dominate. Weighted gazes hold the canvas. Elsewhere, Owusu Ankomah fills walls. Muscular, abstracted human forms overlap with adinkra symbols. The contrast between these two artists strikes immediately. It gives a quick sense of range. Contemporary Ghanaian painting runs wide.
Carved furniture and masks
Corridors between main rooms hold carved wooden furniture and African masks. Some chairs and stools age dark. Near-black wood shows grain worn smooth by decades of handling. Masks vary in scale. Small ceremonial pieces sit near large wall-mounted works. Hollowed eyes catch odd angles of light. Everything sells. What you see depends on recent acquisitions. It also depends on what buyers have already carried away.
Practical Information
Opening Hours
The gallery opens Monday through Saturday. Hours run roughly 9am to 5pm or 6pm. Sundays open noon to 5pm. Listings disagree on exact weekday closing times. Confirm before a late-afternoon visit. Weekday mornings stay quieter. This makes for more contemplative viewing.
Tickets & Pricing
Admission is free. No ticketing system exists. No booking required. Simply walk in. Every piece carries a fixed, labelled asking price. The real cost of a visit depends on self-control. Attendants talk through work gladly. No pressure to buy.
Best Time to Visit
Weekday mornings between opening and 11am hit the sweet spot. The gallery stays cool and empty. Light quality is good. Attendants have time to walk you through pieces in detail. Weekend afternoons draw more visitors. Openings and events swell crowds. Rainy season months from June through September bring fewer tourists. This works in your favour for unhurried looking. The marble interior stays comfortable year-round. Accra's sticky heat stays outside.
Suggested Duration
Plan an hour to an hour and a half. This covers all three floors without rushing. Serious art buyers need two hours. Anyone wanting detailed staff conversations about specific artists should allow this. The pool behind the building tempts lingerers. Add thirty minutes if you succumb.
Getting There
Omanye House sits on the Accra-Tema Beach Road in Labadi, just east of central Accra. Catch a shared trotro toward Tema or Nungua from Kwame Nkrumah Circle. It drops you within walking distance. This is the cheapest option by far. A taxi or ride-hail from Osu takes fifteen to twenty minutes. Traffic in Accra can be heavy.
Morning and late afternoon rush hours are worst. Staying near Labadi Beach? Walk. Ten to fifteen minutes along the coastal road. The salt breeze helps. Informal parking sits directly outside for drivers. The building is unmistakable. Large. Three storeys. White. It faces the ocean, set back slightly from the road.
Things to Do Nearby
Labadi Beach lies a short walk east along the coast. It is Accra's most popular public beach. The sand stretches wide. The surf stays manageable most days. Weekends bring drumming groups. Food vendors line the shore. Grilled tilapia smokes over charcoal. The smell drifts across the sand. Pair it with the gallery. The contrast works. Quiet marble interior. Open, noisy beach. Jarring. In the best way.
Head west along the coast to old Jamestown. A whitewashed colonial-era lighthouse rises above low rooftops. Climb it. The panoramic view of Accra's coastline is among the best in the city. Fishing boats crowd the surrounding streets. Nets dry in the sun. The sharp tang of the day's catch hangs in the air. This is a rawer side of Accra than Labadi. See both. Same day.
This park sits closer to central Accra. It honours Ghana's first president. A large bronze statue dominates the space. Fountains and manicured hedges fill the surrounding garden. The museum inside holds personal effects. Photographs from the independence era line the walls. Pair it naturally with the gallery. Ghanaian history. Ghanaian art. Both fit a single morning or afternoon.
The W.E.B. Du Bois Memorial Centre sits in the Cantonments neighbourhood. It occupies the house where Du Bois spent his final years. The rooms remain preserved. Books still line the shelves. This matters for anyone tracing the intellectual currents that shaped modern Ghana. It complements the visual story at the Artists Alliance Gallery.
The National Museum sits on Barnes Road near the University of Ghana campus. Its archaeological and ethnographic collections give context to the traditional pieces at the gallery. See the kente weaving displays first. The Akan goldweight collections too. They deepen your reading of the textiles and symbols on the gallery walls at Omanye House. Visit before or after.
Tips & Advice
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