Biography
Working across sculpture, painting, installation and works on paper, he follows the tyre through the decline of the Bonsa Tyre Company / Firestone Ghana, the influx of used tyres that followed, and the vulcaniser shops and the waste that remain, and onto the road itself, through the 1974 traffic switch (Operation Keep Right) and the markings rooted in it.
His work has been exhibited at Mitchell-Innes & Nash (New York), Biennale Internationale de Sculpture de Ouagadougou, and internationally across Asia and Europe. He is a 2026 Building Beyond Fellow of the Prince Claus Fund and a finalist for the Ellipse Art Prize (2025). His works are held in the Celine Art Project, Sir David Adjaye Collection, and Fischer Shull Collection.
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Curriculum Vitae
2026 Assembly: Bonsa Origins (Theatre Performance, in collaboration with foundspace), Pa Gya! A Literary Festival in Accra (Edition 10), Goethe-Institut, Accra, Ghana.
2026 The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born, Artitude MMXXVI, Artlife Matters, Accra, Ghana
2024 Beyond Rubber, Afrobutylism Studio, Accra, Ghana
2023 Elementary Rebirth, Nubuke Foundation, Accra, Ghana
2022 The Dreamers Cocoon, The Noldor Residency, Accra, Ghana
BIENNIALS
2026 Dak’Art, 16th Biennale of Contemporary African Art (Biennale de l’Art Africain Contemporain), Dakar, Senegal (Forthcoming)
2025 Biennale Internationale de Sculpture de Ouagadougou (BISO), Insoutenable Frontière, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Ellipse Art Projects: 5th Anniversary Exhibition, 62 Charlot, Paris, France
2026 Atlas of Uncertainty, Origins Centre Museum, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa
2025 In the Fold, Nubuke Foundation, Accra, Ghana
2025 Ellipse Prize Finalist Show, The Mix Design Hub, Accra, Ghana
2024 Don’t Be A Square!, AKKA Project, Venice, Italy
2024 Constellations Part 2: Figures in Webs and Ripples of Space, Gallery 1957, Accra, Ghana
2024 Bold, Honouring James Barnor’s 95th Birthday. Featuring Works by Dela Anyah, Institute Museum of Ghana, Accra, Ghana. With accompanying artist talk.
2024 Form Comes To Mind, The Anzai Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2023 Atererekariaye (2023), Africa Women and Children Climate Change Initiative Pre-Conference of the Parties 28 (AFRIWOCC Pre-COP28), West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI), Accra, Ghana.
2023 Homecoming, Museum of Science and Technology, Accra, Ghana
2023 X’MAS 23, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark
2023 Kaleidoscope of Dreams, Institute Museum of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
2023 Worldmaking, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, USA
2023 SUMMERTIME’23, Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen, Denmark
2023 REVERB 23 | Abstract Resonances //Contemporary Voices, Latitudes Online
2023 Kuenyehia Prize Awards, The Mix Design Hub, Accra, Ghana
2017 Art Retrospective, Alliance Française Accra, Accra, Ghana
PUBLIC INTERVENTIONS
2026 Portrait of a Vulcaniser as Signage, Multiple Vulcaniser Spaces, Accra, Ghana
2025 Homecoming Dome, Multiple Vulcanizer Spaces, Accra, Ghana
2025 Elevation GIHOC, (Former) GIHOC Pharmaceuticals Company Ltd, Accra, Ghana
2024 Homecoming Madina Estates, Rims and Tyres, Accra, Ghana
2024 Forgotten Futures, Multiple Vulcanizer Spaces, Accra, Ghana (Conducted simultaneously across multiple locations.)
2024 EDOTOM 1 (2023), Vulcaniser Shop Ashiyie, Accra, Ghana.
2023 Edem (2023), Rahim’s Vulcaniser Shop Motorway, Accra, Ghana
2023 Homecoming (2), Vulcaniser Shop Islamic School bus stop Adjiringanor, Accra, Ghana
2023 Homecoming, Bicycle Repair Shop Adjiringanor, Accra, Ghana
PUBLICATIONS
2026 Anyah, Dela. “Walls as Luxury: The Economics of Informal Repair Shops.” Log 66. New York: Anyone Corporation.
2026 Anyah, Dela. “Tire as Roadside Ornament.” NYU ITP Adjacent, Issue 13: Ornament, 2026. Available at: View article
2026 Anyah, Dela. “The Vulcanizer Shop: Materiality, Precarity, and Informal Repair Infrastructures.” The MIT Press: Thresholds 54
2024 “Art Beyond Waste”. LIMN Magazine, The Obsolescence Issue, No. 11, p. 32. Cover photograph featured.
ARTIST BOOKS
2023 "Voices: Ghana’s Artists in Their Own Words," Manju Journal, Twentyfour Thirtysix Ltd, p. 54
TALKS/ LECTURES
2026 Featured Speaker, "Art and Literature: Forgotten Stories, Future Worlds" (Panel discussion with Nkwaye Ansah), Pa Gya! A Literary Festival in Accra (Edition 10), Goethe-Institut, Accra, Ghana.
2026 Invited Guest Critic, Unit 26, Graduate School of Architecture, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa (Online)
2026 “Material Carriers of the City,” Public Presentation & Discussion, Gihanga Institute of Contemporary Art (GICA), Kigali, Rwanda
Prince Claus Fund — Building Beyond Fellowship
2025 Homecoming: Vulcanizer Shop as Exhibition Space, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Ghana, Accra
2025 After the Races, After the Stunts, After You Need Me No More: A Bicycle Tire Story, SSHRED
(Skating, Sustainability, Health Research, and Environmental Design) Online Seminar Series
2024 Ruins as Form: Inspiration and Articulation from Scrap Scapes, panelist, Nkabom Literary & Arts Festival, George Padmore Library, Accra, Ghana.
2024 Transforming Tire Waste: Histories, Processes, and Innovative Forms, virtual presentation and work display, Energy, Waste, and the Environment in West Africa, hosted by the Departments of Anthropology & History, Rice University (Moody Center for the Arts, Houston, USA)
2023 VOICES: Ghana’s Artists in Their Own Words Book Launch, panelist, La Gallery, Accra, Ghana
2023 Community Sense of Potential, panelist, Nkabom Literary & Arts Festival, Kukun, Accra, Ghana
2023 Presentation on Artistic Practice, Ghana Climate Innovation Centre & Atlantic Council - Climate Leadership Program, Jamestown Cafe, Accra, Ghana.
RESIDENCIES & WORKSHOPS
2026 Artist-in-Residence, Dot Ateliers Residency, Accra, Ghana
2026 Artitude Residency, Artlife Matters, Accra, Ghana
2025 Frame of Ghana, Reading Room: Ghana in Portrait, Si Hene Foundation, Accra
2025 Masterclass on the Aesthetics of Willis E. Bell, Willis Bell Photographic Archive, Accra
2023 Research for Arts Practice, Workshop Participant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Accra, Ghana.
2022 Artist-in-Residence, The Noldor Residency, Accra, Ghana
FELLOWSHIPS
2026 Building Beyond Fellowship, Cycle 5, Prince Claus Fund
GRANTS & AWARDS
2025 Finalist, Ellipse Art Prize
2023 2nd Runner Up, Kuenyehia Prize for Contemporary Art
2022 Semi-Finalist, Art X Prize
COLLECTIONS
CELINE ART PROJECT Puerto Banus
Sir David Adjaye Collection New York | London | Accra
The Institute Museum of Ghana Accra
Kuenyehia Collection Accra
Canadian High Commission Accra
Fischer Shull Collection North Carolina
PRESS
2025 — "Dela Anyah Discusses Value, Waste and Sustainability with Beyond Rubber," STIRworld, Interview by Kwame Aidoo
https://www.stirworld.com/see-features-dela-anyah-discusses-value-waste-and-sustainability-with-beyond-rubber
2025 — "Interview: Dela Anyah," Pasaje Montoya, Interview by Silvana Fiorese
https://pasajemontoya.com/interviews/dela-anyah/
2024 — "Changing a Tyre Into Art," Sawubona Magazine, Profile by Sbu Mkwanazi, Issue 71, pp. 70–71
https://saasawubona.com/changing-a-tyre-into-art/
2024 — "Dela Anyah: Identity and Rebirth," City Life Accra, Profile by Marcel Kouassigan
https://www.citylifeaccra.com/features-accra/dela-anyah-identity-and-rebirth
2024 — "This Artist's Surprising Source of Inspiration: Old Tires," Artwork Archive, Profile by Paige Mills
https://www.artworkarchive.com/blog/this-artist-s-surprising-source-of-inspiration-old-tires