David MylesBorn to parents from Ghana, dynamic contemporary visual artist, mentor and philanthropist, Eugene Ankomah, also known as EA, was born in West London. His father was a soldier and had a project in the UK, which ultimately led to Eugene being born in England. However, Eugene did not stay long in England for long. Shortly after his birth, his parents returned to Ghana, and he continued to reside in the West African country until he was 13 years old.
Living in the city, Tema offered an eclectic fusion where the pace of life was both fast and slow, yet the distance to Ghana’s capital city, Accra, was still only some 19 or 20 miles away.
Speaking to the artist in Hertfordshire, just outside of London, Eugene explained that ‘’I really experienced the Ghanaian culture and the African way of life, which was fantastic. I learnt so much. Soaked in so much, and of course, that is where I discovered I was good at art. With a gleaming glow and brief chuckle, the creative adds ‘’or should I say, that’s when other people said that I was good at art when I was growing up’’.
The fertilisation of Eugene’s passion for art came much earlier, manifesting in an incidental way through curiosity and exposure. From a young age, Eugene would ask his mom to provide him with masses of paper material to ‘’just scribble on to draw’’ which ignited something in Eugene.
Having a mom who worked as a seamstress, invariably seen busy making bespoke garments for clients, captivated Eugene’s interest in fashion and different fabrics. With a copious amount of fashion catalogues scattered around his house, Eugene would devote hours to browsing the catalogues, which featured drawings of models wearing regal outfits and posing in multiple different stances.
At first, Eugene limited the materials he used to create his art to coloured pencils, coloured pens, and paper. Although this was not a deliberate choice, it stemmed from his knowledge at the time. He didn’t have to venture too far, as exposure to other ideas of expressing art was closer to him than he had imagined. Entering the botanical gardens, which were literally on his doorstep, revolutionised how Eugene envisioned he could use art.
In the studio: recent work
‘’It [botanical gardens] was run by two brothers, and they had painted pictures of flowers and had attempted to do portraits of some of the local people, and this was sort of arranged within the flowers as part of the decoration. I remember walking around, looking at it, looking at the colours that had been used in these paintings and that was when I started to develop the idea that my drawings could become these things that I was looking at’’.
Impressionism became an essential aspect of how Eugene developed art, though in terms of materials, he continued to improvise primarily through the medium of coloured pens, coloured pencils and paper. The artist is grateful that he only had access to basic materials for his art in his early days, and he remained determined to use what he had to a high calibre.
‘’That was the moment when I knew that I had something that I loved doing and made people happy. I never looked back since. Every class I went to, I always got the highest mark in art, or as long as I can remember’’
At junior school, Eugene continued to draw inspiration from his surroundings and would waste no time drawing what he saw, not only at school but also on his commute to and from school. This transcended to every location and encounter.
Pondering on his rich childhood experience, the artist said: ‘’As you know, African life is really vibrant with all kinds of stuff happening. Be it your neighbour’s monkey on its tree, or just people going back and forth. All of that stuff really influenced me’’. The interactions Eugene had with teachers, friends and others reinforced his admiration for art. The reverence he received certainly enhanced his confidence.
While still only 6, Eugene recalls a time in school where an art teacher asked the class of students to pick something from exercise books to draw. Out of the myriads of options, Eugene chose a monkey chiefly because his neighbour had a monkey that he would play with. While drawing the monkey out of the exercise book, Eugene attracted an audience; his fellow students gathered around, reminiscent of a griot storytelling session. Even the class teacher was a spectator.
Bemused by the bystanders, Eugene vividly recollects that everyone had jubilant smiles on their faces. ‘’The teacher tapped me on my shoulder and said, really good’’. The picture that Eugene drew was not just a replication of the one in the book, but an improvisation of the picture, as Eugene’s imagination propelled him to supplement what he saw. The artist marks this juncture as ‘’the moment when I knew that I had something that I loved doing and made people happy. I never looked back since. Every class I went to, I always got the highest mark in art, or as long as I can remember.’’
Birthplace: Born in unfamiliarity
Returning to Britain in 1990 at the age of 13 was a profound experience. Despite being born in Britain, Eugene had little knowledge of British life, as his pre-adolescent years were far removed not only by the stark differences in temperature but also by the social cues and cultural mores of the two countries.
Although one would not have to look too far to see the British colonial ramifications of a country that was formally known as the Gold Coast, the different cultural dimensions of Britain and Ghana were still tremendous and, for 13 years, very perplexing.
Through the lens of a teenager, Eugene declared that from the moment the wheels on the plane from Kotoka International Airport to Heathrow came to a halt, everything was distinctly different. The following morning, the realisation that he was no longer in Ghana began to dawn. Even at this point, it was as if his body was still somewhere else, but his eyes were witnessing the unfamiliar.
In his new, newfound environment, looking back, the father of two admitted that ‘’It took quite a while to get used to the lifestyle, the children, the way they dressed, the way they spoke. I couldn’t understand anything. I knew they were speaking English, but it was just the accents. The speed was just completely overwhelming.”
Faced with the conundrum of experiencing his peers at school call him ‘African boy’ in a derogatory manner, these tremendous encounters were intensified by witnessing Black boys partaking in the furore, making Eugene feel isolated. Fortunately, for a young Eugene, this ordeal was relatively brief, and he quickly made friends in what he still deemed a peculiar environment.
Eugene sitting with a large scale
In art lessons, Eugene thrived once again. Teachers and peers alike briskly learned of how adept Eugene’s art was. Reflecting on the moment people at his school discovered his talents, the self-taught visual artist said: ‘’I became the boy who drew because I would draw them [peers at school] and I actually managed to convert me enemies into friends because I would draw them’’.
Initially, being a timid child, Eugene would draw the whole class from the back of the classroom, ensuring that his dexterity captured every finite detail of the room. In an evocative way, his time in school in Ghana, where teachers and fellow pupils were dazzled by his drawings, inspired Eugene to start drawing individuals in his class.
A Dichotomy? Being self-taught and arriving at art school
As an unconventional artist, Eugene routinely refused to allow himself to be contained. Unfettered by rigid expectations, he learned from a young age to improvise his art, evoking new ways of thinking. His time in art school never hindered this ability but rather enhanced it.
Finishing his A Levels, Eugene was awarded the highest marks in Art that any student had ever received at Willesden High School in West London, a school in the Brent borough. Enthralled by his work, Eugene’s recollects an examiner saying ‘’she had been working and travelling for 15 years and had never seen a talent like mine before at my age’’. Still only 17, Eugene went on to be the first recipient of the Peter Evans Award.
Eugene with Jim Mural
Eugene went on to study at Central Saint Martin’s, College of Art and Design and was particularly intrigued by old renaissance art such as Raphael, Titian and Michelangelo. Yet to enthuse himself in modern art, he found St Martin’s an evolution of his creativity, stating ‘’When you get St Martins and these colleges, what they try to do is not to necessarily pull you away from where you are, but they try to expand you. They will expand by introducing and throwing at you all kinds of things that you may not be used to.”
‘’You can see something as it is, hear something in a particular way, but you don’t have to stick to it. You can actually go beyond it, and you can create something that is smarter, quicker and more effective’’
This expansion involved using what Eugene described as ‘wild materials’ in making art. After returning to the UK, St Martin’s College could be said to represent a second wave of shock from Eugene, where he was asked to make art of cardboard boxes. A dichotomy materialised from Eugene attempting to refine his craft, yet encountering disruption, forcing him to halt, albeit temporarily, a side of himself to grapple with more of what was expected of him in this new exigent environment.
Eugene used to see himself as a painter, but upon his arrival at St. Martin’s College, he underwent a period of introspection, battling with where art could go and what it could achieve—tasked to create a theatre set out of cardboard boxes.
The theme was to formulate something that could open and close, and while Eugene ensured that the theme remained integral, the visual artist disbanded the idea of using cardboard boxes. Opting for an umbrella because ‘I like the shape of an umbrella’ and perhaps crucially ’when you turn an umbrella upside down, you can open and close it’.
Beginning with painting the different themes within the umbrella, Eugene started to attach strings from the tip of the umbrella to the handle. The final result was ‘’a beautiful scene of a circus within an umbrella, with all the different compartments where people would go and perform. And I attached a flag. Still in his teens, he recalls fellow students being astonished and concluding that he had cheated by not adhering to the script, as he refused to use cardboard boxes.
The lecturer commended Eugene, which led to a resurgence of self-discovery in how one can adhere to a script while still seeking innovative ways to present it, essentially sticking to the theme; in this instance, an item that can open and close.
His experience constructing a theatre within an umbrella taught Eugene a life lesson that ‘’you can see something as it is, hear something in a particular way, but you don’t have to stick to it. You can actually go beyond it, and you can create something that is smarter, quicker and more effective.
After completing a foundation degree from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art & Design, Eugene graduated with a degree in Illustration and Fine Art.
Favourite medium
From the early 2000s and for just over a decade and a half, Eugene immersed himself in multimedia, or what he typically refers to as ‘tribal paintings’ because of the intertwining of Ancient African sculptures with the utilisation of unusual materials such as feathers, chicken heads, and rusty nails.
In the studio with Mother and Child painting
Over the thirty years and counting as an artist, Eugene has had his worked exhibited in a multitude of locations such a flag design which was displayed on top of Buckingham Palace for several weeks in the late 90s while he was still only 17, Carnbury Street London in 2005. Additionally, he collaborated with performance artist, Katerina Fanouraki, for a performance called Thirst in Athens. The objective was to highlight the global water scarcity. Eugene has also had his work displayed at the likes of the Art House in London and The Windmill in London approximately a decade ago.
Over the years, Eugene has featured in edifying documentaries such as the National Trust’s Marking Black History Month at Belton House, which showcased African American sculptor, African American sculptor, Richmond Barthé, who was an influential figure during the Harlem Renaissance. Barthé is said to have migrated to the island of Jamaica, where he stayed for at least twenty years.
This year, Eugene signed a contract with a new gallery, the McKay Williamson Gallery in OWO, which is adjacent to the Royal Whitehall Horse Guards in Whitehall. The gallery chose three of his pieces for an exhibition which is recently finished on the 28th of August.
When quizzed about what medium of art he prefers, the art he confesses that painting is still probably his favourite medium because it is the foundation of what he does and aids him with cultivating his ideas rapidly.
Still uncertain, the artist concedes ‘’I am my favourite material’’. He adds ‘’my work has changed, mediums have changed, because the message and the expression and what I am trying to do changes, so therefore I’ve changed materials to fit the new message and what the new expression is’’.
Because Eugene does not separate himself from his art and sees himself as a personification of art, in Eugene’s view, ‘’you represent the idea through yourself and then it comes out onto a canvas, or whatever you use, but it is coming from you’’. Liking his art to the shamans in an African village who will dress in a specific way prior to their rituals and will ‘’become before they give out the message’’. Ontologically, Eugene’s outlook is profound because as we sit conversing, he is dressed in flamboyant colours, with his face painted after attending a briefing for a forthcoming art competition in Amsterdam, where he will serve as one of the seven judges.
Miss and Mister Art
Eugene is part of an esteemed panel of judges for the Miss and Mister Art competition, which is run by A3 Art. There will be a winner and a runner-up chosen from each gender, representing Miss and Mr Art.
Speaking about the competition, Eugene said: ‘’The competition looks at not just the artwork of applicants. But it also looks at the personality of the artist via the explanations and overall intention of their expression.”
Winners in each classification will be bestowed with the title and certificate of Miss or Mister Art 2025. Additionally, the winner will have several pages in an international magazine devoted to highlighting the work and profile.
The Miss and Mister Art winners will also have the privilege of having their photo, country of origin, and profile featured in an art festival in Amsterdam, attracting an art audience from public collectors, publications, and various forms of the press. Eugene likens the contest to the structure of the Eurovision contest.
Applications for Miss and Mister Art are currently closed, but interested candidates can apply for the Miss and Mister Art 2026 competition by visiting A3 Art
To expand, the organisers of the Miss and Mister Art competition are seeking new sponsors. Potential sponsors are advised to contact A3 Art.
Youth and the Reclaim project
Just before much of the world can to a standstill due to a covid lockdown in early 2020, the year prior Eugene can remember feeling heavy hearted by the various stabbings in South London where his studio is situated, to Kilburn, Kensal Green and Harlesden and Neasden in the West/North west areas of London.
This apparent rise in knife crimes was not restricted to London. Large metropolitan locations such as the West Midlands are said to have experienced a 13% increase in knife crimes since 2011, around this period, while London was said to have witnessed a drop in knife killings, stabbings were still high.
The press has significantly reported on Eugene’s work over the years, but it was in 2019 when he noticed an infelicitous tendency in newspaper articles. ‘’I would appear in a newspaper, and you would have the Eugene story, he won an award or whatever and then the next page would be that he has been stabbed. He is only 15. This happened consistently over maybe 4 or 5 articles’’ says the performer.
Never despondent, Eugene explored how he could use art to combat knife crime and conversed with a director of a youth centre who revealed that Southwark Council in London want the youth centre to do something pertaining to knife crime. The fact that this occurred simultaneously to Eugene’s commitment to use art to address knife crime was not a coincidence for him.
Reclaim art work at Capital City Academy School in Dollis Hill, West London
Out of these discussions, a project called Reclaim was initiated and started at The Salmon Youth Centre in Bermondsey, which is said to be one of the largest youth centres in Europe. From there, the project toured in 4 other locations, including a school, Capital City in the west London district of Dollis Hill/Willesden where just 2 years prior, a masked teenager devastatingly stabbed 15 old Quamari Serunkuma-Barne to his untimely death as he was walking from school.
The project has also run in Wandsworth with an organisation called RTK (Responding Together To Knife Crime), consisting of various individuals, including paramedics and youth workers, who discussed the devastating consequences of knife crime.
Young people during a Reclaim art project
Working with RTK, Eugene worked with about 10 young people who were all categized as at risk or disenfranchised, labels that he is not fond of using.
Speaking about the project, Eugene said: ‘’We erected the whole installation again. We had the local mayor [Jeremy Ambache] came in and gave a wonderful speech and was incredibly supportive’’ asserts Eugene. He added ‘’He was artist himself. He was really glad and happy to see art being used in the way that we had done’’. In 2021, the project stayed in Wandsworth and ran in a huge derelict location within South London’s famous Southside Shopping Centre, which enabled both Eugene and members of RTK to interact with members of public.
Reclaim had a small team that help with the lightening and audio arrangement when one walks in the space and volunteers who assist Eugene with moving equipment, artefacts and flowers, teddy bears and messages that had been engraved on carboards and papers that served as part of the theme for the project framing a memorial inspired atmosphere to illustrate the traumatic impact that knife crime has on people’s lives.
Initially, plans were to take the Reclaim project to City Hall, but the advent of the pandemic in 2020 hindered these intentions. ‘’Media wise, we know what this would have done’’ said the multidimensional artist.
Eugene plans to resurrect the Reclaim project in late November/early December this year and the initiative will return to where it was birthed, The Salmon Youth Centre. Zealously, Eugene stated ‘’I thought about other ideas to add to it [the Reclaim project]. I want to involve more people on the performance side of it’’.
Reclaim starts from age 10 and upwards. People who are interested in working with Eugene for the Reclaim project are encouraged to contact him via:
Email: eacreativeartltd@gmail.com
