Installation View, Edotom1, Homecoming Ashiyie, 2024.

Biography

Dela Anyah is an artist and researcher based in Accra, Ghana, working across inner tube textile works, bronze sculpture, installation, moving image, and works on paper. His practice is grounded in the contemporary history of the tyre industry: the global systems that sustain its trade and circulation, the labour networks and migration patterns that underpin it, and the waste those systems produce.

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Selected Artwork


Selected Writings and Publications

Curriculum Vitae

SOLO EXHIBITIONS AND PRESENTATIONS

2024    Beyond Rubber, Afrobutylism Studio, Accra, Ghana

2023    Elementary Rebirth, Nubuke Foundation, Accra, Ghana 

2022    The Dreamers Cocoon,  The Noldor Residency, Accra, Ghana 


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026    Atlas of Uncertainty, Origins Centre Museum, Wits University, Johannesburg, South Africa

2025    Biennale Internationale de Sculpture de Ouagadougou, Insoutenable Frontière, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
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 2 (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
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
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 Fellow, 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