Biography
Dela Anyah (b. 1986) is a Ghanaian artist whose practice investigates the social and material networks of the tire industry through archival documentation, community intervention, and material transformation. Working primarily within vulcaniser shops—informal tire repair spaces that generate streams of discarded inner tubes and tire remnants—he develops projects that operate simultaneously as research, collaboration, and making. Anyah's multidisciplinary approach encompasses photography, video, sculpture, cartographic mapping, and participatory interventions that engage directly with repair workers and their communities. He transforms the byproducts of automotive repair into woven textile sculptures while documenting repair economies as sites of skilled labor and vernacular knowledge. His interventions within vulcaniser shops challenge hierarchies between artistic production and technical expertise, repositioning these spaces as centers of environmental knowledge and economic practice. Through mapping projects, he renders visible the geographic distribution of repair networks across urban landscapes.
His work has been exhibited internationally, including at Biennale Internationale de Sculpture de Ouagadougou, Mitchell-Innes & Nash (New York), The Anzai Gallery (Tokyo), AKKA Project (Venice), Galleri Christoffer Egelund (Copenhagen) and Gallery 1957 (Accra). In Ghana, he has presented solo exhibitions such as Elementary Rebirth at Nubuke Foundation and The Dreamer's Cocoon at The Noldor Residency.
A finalist for the Ellipse Art Prize (2025) and Second Runner-Up for the Kuenyehia Prize (2023), Anyah's works are held in significant collections, including the Celine Art Project, Sir David Adjaye Collection, and Fischer Shull Collection.
Through archival practice, material transformation, and collaborative intervention, Anyah examines waste as ongoing circulation—revealing how informal economies interface with the global tire industry.
Curriculum Vitae
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 Elementary Rebirth, Nubuke Foundation, Accra, Ghana
2022 The Dreamers Cocoon, The Noldor Residency, Accra, Ghana
2019 New Slaves, Hope City Church, Accra, Ghana
2019 Abuse Series, Canadian High Commissioner’s Residence, Accra, Ghana
2019 Abuse Series, Canadian High Commission, Accra, Ghana
2019 Minutes Before a Heartbreak, Antique Lemonade Art Space, Accra, Ghana
2018 Abuse Series, Antique Lemonade Art Space, Accra, Ghana
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
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
2018 Elimination of Violence Against Women and Girls, Alliance Française Accra, Accra, Ghana— Group exhibition commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, organized in collaboration with the French Embassy in Ghana, UNFPA, Zonta e-Club of West Africa, and CoPASH.
2018 Ghanaian Artists Works in Tbilisi, iArt Gallery, Tbilisi, Georgia— Cultural exchange group exhibition organized with Antique Lemonade Art Space..
2017 Art Retrospective, Alliance Française Accra, Accra, Ghana
PUBLIC INTERVENTIONS
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
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
GRANTS & AWARDS
2025 Finalist, Ellipse Art Prize
2023 2nd Runner Up, Kuenyehia Prize for Contemporary Art
2022 Semi-Finalist, Art X Prize
PUBLICATIONS / BIBLIOGRAPHY
2025 Lord, Please Bring Me to a Place of Settlement. Artist publication. Afrobutylism Studio, Accra, 2025. Published to accompany the presentation at the Biennale Internationale de Sculpture de Ouagadougou (BISO).
2024 “Art Beyond Waste”. LIMN Magazine, The Obsolescence Issue, No. 11, p. 32. Cover photograph featured.
2024 "Changing a Tyre Into Art," Sawubona, Profile by Sbu Mkwanazi, Issue 71, pp. 70-71
2024 Enter the Tire Verse, artist publication, Afrobutylism Studio, Accra.
2023 "Voices: Ghana’s Artists in Their Own Words," Manju Journal, Twentyfour Thirtysix Ltd, p. 54
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