NMDCA News:
SANTA FE — The Museum of International Folk Art (MOIFA) announces The Art Underground: Fantasy Coffins of Ghana, opening Sunday, July 19, 2026, and on view through Saturday, September 5, 2027. This groundbreaking exhibition brings together more than twenty works including newly commissioned coffins—in both full-size and miniature-size—to take full measure of one of Ghana’s most inventive living art forms: figurative coffins made in coastal Ga communities that transform lived biographies into sculptural form.
Hand-carved and vividly painted, these works—often referred to in Ga as abέbùù adékà—are made to honor the dead through symbols of vocation, reputation, aspiration, and lineage. A coffin might take the shape of a fish, a Bible, a shoe, a bottle, or a vehicle, designed to be read in public procession as a bold statement about a life lived. The Art Underground presents these coffins not as curiosities, but as coffins that communicate something about the deceased. These are objects that move between craft, ritual, and art, carrying memory into public view.
The exhibition also highlights the double role that the tradition plays today. In Ghana, coffins remain vessels shaped by family consultation and funerary purpose. Yet, since the 1970s, accelerated by international exhibitions and publications, these works have also traveled widely, entering museums and private collections worldwide. The Art Underground restores the cultural context often lost in that global circulation, returning attention to the coffin builder’s workshop as a living site of knowledge, negotiation, humor, skill, and belief.
The Art Underground is guest curated by Mark Sloan in collaboration with master coffin maker Eric Adjetey Anang, grandson of Seth Kane Kwei, a foundational figure associated with the tradition’s rise to public visibility in the late 1950s. The project foregrounds workshop lineages and apprenticeship, while also acknowledging that early histories are plural, shaped by multiple perspectives and local memory.
“Fantasy coffins embody dialogue—between families and craftsmen, between tradition and innovation, between local rituals and global art markets,” Sloan said. “Our goal is to honor the artistry, ingenuity, and cultural depth of this living tradition while presenting it with the respect and seriousness it deserves.”
The exhibition will be accompanied by a richly illustrated publication from the Museum of New Mexico Press, edited by Mark Sloan, and featuring essays by Roberta Bonetti, Nii O. Quarcoopome, Steven Feld with Nii Yemo Nunu, and John Owoo, with photography by Mark Sloan and Yao Ladzekpo.
This exhibition was made possible by support from the International Folk Art Foundation, the Deborah and Martin Fishbein Trust, Friends of Folk Art, and donors to the Museum of New Mexico Foundation Exhibition Development including lead support from Edelma and David Huntley and the William H. and Mattie Wattis Harris Foundation, with additional support from David Arment and Jim Rimelspach, JoAnn and Robert Balzer, Virginia Browning and Joseph Illick, in memory of Jinny Browning; Cathy Campbell; PJ and Robert Cardinale; Charlene Cerny and Laura Sullivan, in memory of Priscilla Bruce Temple; Rosalind Doherty, in memory of Lowell Doherty; Marc Edelson, Blaine Gutermuth and Debra Halliday, in memory of Brenda Edelson; Rae Hoffacker and Peter Pappas; Sara and Chris Julsrud; and Corinne Kratz, in memory of Ivan Karp and Doran H. Ross; Mary Anne and Bruce Larsen; Lewis & Dilworth Family Fund; and Jerri and Jeff Straight.
About the Museum of International Folk Art
The Museum of International Folk Art is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, under the leadership of the Board of Regents for the Museum of New Mexico System. Programs and exhibitions are generously supported by the International Folk Art Foundation and Museum of New Mexico Foundation. The mission of the Museum of International Folk Art is to shape a humane world by connecting people through creative expression and artistic traditions. The museum holds a collection of more than 163,000 objects from more than 120 countries. Learn more at moifa.org.
