Dela Anyah 


Dela Anyah - Sculptor, Artist | Transformative Art from Discarded Materials
Photograph by Tesa Sackitey


Dela Anyah (b. 1986)’s artistic practice is grounded in the informal labor environments of vulcanizer shops in Ghana, where he examines themes of value, identity, displacement, and material memory within informal economies. Through his multidisciplinary research initiative, Vulcanizer Archive, which integrates photography, video, sound, and field documentation, he systematically records these essential yet precarious workplaces and the communities they support. Employing discarded tires and found materials, Anyah produces sculptural and photographic works that articulate the nuanced tensions between history and contemporaneity, mobility and rootedness, waste and value. While firmly situated within the specific socio-industrial realities of Ghana, his work extends to encompass a critical investigation of the global tire waste industry, its environmental consequences, and the interconnected informal economies related to repair and reuse practices worldwide. By illuminating the latent worth in materials often marginalized or discarded, Anyah’s practice maps the complex histories and potential futures of these intertwined local and global systems.

Anyah was the Second Runner-Up for the Kuenyehia Prize. His work is included in the Celine Art Project (Puerto Banús), Sir David Adjaye (New York, London, Accra), and the Fischer Shull Collection (North Carolina, Mexico).

Selected solo exhibitions include: Nubuke Foundation, Accra (2023) and The Noldor Residency, Accra (2022).

Selected group exhibitions include: Akka Project, Venice (2024), Gallery 1957, Accra (2024), The Anzai Gallery, Tokyo (2024), Museum of Science and Technology, Accra (2023), Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York (2023), and Galleri Christoffer Egelund, Copenhagen (2023).


Photograph by Tesa Sackitey
Photo Courtesy: Noldor Artist Residency
Photo Courtesy: Noldor Artist Residency







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