Biography
Working in a variety of media that includes photography, painting, and archival interventions, Kelvin Haizel is excited about the speculative potential of what he terms images about nothing. Images that are culled from the subcategories of objects. His practice combines personal inquiry and research into these subcategories of objectness to evolve an aesthetic that inverts the social stratifications of objects. After a long hiatus from painting, the artist has returned to the medium to engage with a visual language that is abstract, materialist, and also fictional.
He has a PhD in Painting & Sculpture from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana. He earned his MFA (2018) and his BFA in Painting and Sculpture (2010) from the same institution.
Haizel’s solo exhibitions include: ‘We Do Not Sleep to Dream’, Gallery1957 Accra, Ghana (2024), ‘Gestures of Happiness’, Gallery Farah Fakhri Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire (2024), ‘Archive of Experiences’, 8th Hamburg Photography Triennial, MARKK museum, Hamburg, Germany (2022), and ‘Babysitting a Shark in a Cold room: Comoros Encounters’, Zurich, Switzerland (2019) for which he was the recipient of A New Gaze 2 prize for contemporary photography. Group exhibitions by the artist include: ‘Beautiful Diaspora /You Are Not the Lesser Part’ Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL, USA (2022); ‘This is Not Africa- Unlearn What You Have Learned’ ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Denmark (2021), ‘Tomorrow There Will Be More of Us’, Stellenbosch Trienniale, Stellenbosch, South Africa (2020); ‘Afrotopia’, Rencontres de Bamako, Biennale Africaine de la Photographie (2017); ‘OderlyDisorderly’, Museum of Science and Technology, Accra, Ghana (2017).
He was a resident artist at Hyde Park Art Centre in Chicago (2022) and a research scholar at Northwestern University in Chicago at the invitation of the Black Arts Consortium (2022). Haizel’s work has been featured in articles and publications including Monopol, Over Journal, and Contemporary And (C&).
Curriculum Vitae (Abridged)
Kelvin Kweku Haizel, Ph.D
EDUCATION
Ph.D Painting and Sculpture 2025: Kwame Nkrumah University Of Science And Technology (KNUST) Kumasi, Ghana.
MFA. (Painting and Sculpture). 2017: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science And Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
BFA. (Painting and Sculpture) 2010: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science And Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions
2024: “We Do Not Sleep To Dream” Solo Exhibition curated by Ato Annan at Gallery1957, Accra. Ghana.
2024: “The Gestures of Happiness” Solo Exhibition at Gallery Farrah Fakhri, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
2022: “Archive of Experiences”. Solo exhibition at the Museum am Rothenbaum-Kulturen und Künste der Welt
2019: “Babysitting a Shark in a Coldroom” A solo exhibition curated by Urs Stahel in Zurich, Switzerland.
2018: “A Fish Story”, A filming event organized in response to the historicity of Socovia, in the Comoros Island. Comoros Island
2017: “things and nothings” solo exhibition held at the Old Knust Museum. Ghana
Biennales, Triennials, Quinquennials
2022: “Documenta Fifteen”. Participates as a member of the blaxTARLINES KUMASI Collective, Kassel.
2020: “Stellenbosch Triennale” The maiden edition of the Stellenbosch Triennale curated by Bernard Akoi Jackson and Khanyisile Mbongwa in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
2017: “Afrotopia” 11th edition of the Rencontre de Bamako, Biennale Africaine de la Photographie. Musee de Bamako, Mali.
Other group exhibitions
2023: “Worldmaking” Group Exhibition at Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Chelsea, New York.
2024: “Untitled III: The African Family” Gallery1957, Accra, Ghana
2022: “Beautiful Diaspora/You Are Not The Lessor Part”. Group exhibition at the MoCP, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago.
2021: “This is not Africa: Unlearn what you have learned”. Group exhibition at the ARoS Aarhaus Art Museum, Denmark.
2019: “Lagos Photo Festival” Showed in the 10th anniversary of the Lagos Photo Festival themed “Passports”. Lagos, Nigeria
2018: “SpectacleSpeculation” An art exhibition curated by Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh at the Ablade Glover Hall. Ghana
2018: “Afrotopia” 11th edition of the Rencontre de Bamako, Biennale Africaine de la Photographie. Restaged in Africa Museum, Netherlands.
2017: “Bizindalo: Art & Technology in Africa” Group show at Funcahal’s ‘Casa da Luz’ investigating strategic narratives on Africa and technology. Madiera, Portugal.
2017: “Orderly Disorderly” Group show organized by blaxTARLINES in collaboration with Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, at the Museum of Science and Technology, Accra, Ghana
2017: “Something Played” Group exhibition curated by Selorm Kudjie. Ghana
2017: “Art in Process” Group exhibition organized by Gallery Sol. France
2016: “Cornfields and Accra” Group exhibition organized by blaxTARLINES in collaboration with Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, at the Museum of Science and Technology, Accra, Ghana
RESIDENCIES
2024: MORPHO, Antwerp, Belgium
2023: Gallery1957, Accra, Ghana
2022: Black Arts Consortium (BAC) artist-in-residency, Chicago, USA
2022: Hyde Park Art Center Residency, Chicago, USA
2021: Museum am Rothenbaum-Kulturen und Künste der Welt residency, Hamburg. Germany
2020: La Condition Publique, Roubaix, France.
2019: Moroni, Comoros Island.
2015: Asiko: 5TH International Art Programme, Maputo “A History of Contemporary Art in Maputo in 4 weeks”, Maputo, Mozambique.
AWARDS
2022: David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation Award
2018: Young contemporary photography “A New Gaze 2” presented by Vontobel Art Commission, Switzerland
2015: Kuenyehia Prize for Contemporary Art: 2nd Runner up.
LECTURES/WORKSHOPS/ ART TALKS
2024: Lecture: “On Simultaneous Multiplicities”, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp.
2022: Black Arts Consortium (BAC) artist-in-residency art talk.
2022: Hyde’n in the park: Reflections on the desire of image. Art talk at Hyde Park Art Center
2022: Artist talk at the Museum am Rothenbaum-Kulturen und Künste der Welt residency, Hamburg. Germany
2022: In Conversation: Kelvin Haizel and Dr. Robert Hanserd of Colombia College Chicago. MoCP post-opening programming for the exhibition Beautiful Diaspora/You are not the lessor part”
2022: SAIC Parlor Room lecture series. (Zoom)
2021: Art Talk: Embracing the Traumatic in the Aesthetic Unconscious. In company of Tracy Thompson, Eric Gyamfi and Wolgang Tillmans.
2021: Lecture to Graduate students of Photography at SAIC taught by Dawit L. Petros (Zoom)
2020: ‘Photography in an Expanded’. Lecture at the Stellenbosch Academy of Photography and Design
2019: Presention at the Research Center for Material Culture’s (RCMC) workshop on the topic ‘Beyond Representational Certainty: Rethinking the Future of the Afrika Museum’.
2013: “Dubois in Our Time” sound and video art workshop organized by Nubuke Foundation in collaboration with University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Uzora Projects and VAN Lagos, Nigeria.
2012: Global Crit Clinic, FCA, Accra, Ghana
Publications
Monopol Magazin. Documenta Fifteen edition. Ein Künstler Der Uns Augefallen Ist.
Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh (2022) The Artist as Historical Materialist: Kelvin Haizel Exposing the Photographic Real. https://iubeezy.wordpress.com/2022/05/30/the-artist-as-historical-materialist-kelvin-haizel-exposing-the-photographic-real/
Kwasi Ohene-Ayeh (2021). Indeterminate Images. OVER(2), 34-45.
Siddhartha Mitter (2020). Stellenbosch Triennale, a Bold Experiment. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/arts/design/stellenbosch-triennale.html
Khanyisile Mbongwa and Bernard Akoi-Jackon (2020). Stellenbosch Triennale: Tomorrow There Will Be More Of Us. Edited by Khanyisile Mbongwa (Cape Town, with Tip Africa Publishing Ltd), Exhibition catalogue
Katrin Schregenberger (2019). Kunst ist ein Witz. Aber ein komplexer. Neue Zurcher Zeitung. https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/afrikanische-kunst-kelvin-haizel-gewinnt-vontobel-preis-ld.1466675
Jens Hinrichsen (2019). Glaube an die verandernde Kraft von Kunst. Monopol Magazine. https://www.monopol-magazin.de/barrieren-und-blutiger-ernst
Christoph Heim (2019). Auch Fische brauchen Zartlichkeit. Tages-Anzeiger. https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/kultur/kunst/auch-fische-brauchen-zaertlichkeit/story/29970286
CONTEMPORARY AND Print Edition No.9 (2018). You Are Already In It: Looking At A Global Diaspora. pgs 32-33
Afrotopia (2017). 11th Edition Rencontres de Bamako, Biennial Africaine de la Photographe. Exhibition catalogue, pgs 32-33
I.U.B (2017). Notes on Kelvin Haizel’s ‘Things and Nothings’... https://iubeezy.wordpress.com/2017/05/23/notes-on-haizels- things-and-nothings/
CCA Lagos (2017). Àsìkò: On the Future of Artistic and Curatorial Pedagogies in Africa. pgs. 8-11