Ekow Nimako, 42, is a Ghanaian Canadian artist who builds surreal sculptures using only black Legos. "Cavalier Noir," shown here, features a Black warrior child riding on a unicorn. Nimako was commissioned to create the piece for Nuit Blanche Toronto art festival in 2018 and says he wanted to create something that "spoke to the attractiveness and bold spirit of Black people and, in particular, young Black people." The piece is currently being exhibited in South Korea.
Anansi -- He started making Lego sculptures in 2012. Here, he depicts Anansi, a trickster deity from African folktale that often took the form of a spider, as a Black child with eight limbs. The sculpture is part of his "Building Black: Mythos" series, which features artworks shaped by Black mythological narratives and other-worldly adventures.
Anansi -- Nimako grew up with the Anansi stories but realized later in life that the books were being written by White authors. The artwork is a "pushback on my end where I'm like, 'this is our culture. You don't get to be the one that puts our culture out there to the world. That's on us,'" he says.
Flower Girl -- The Canada-based artist says that he is specifically making "Black art" in which Black children can "see themselves reflected." This sculpture of a Black flower girl holding a giant bee is currently touring the UK as part of an exhibition called "Brick by Brick." Nimako aimed to create "a place of sanctuary for the most vulnerable in this world," he says, referring to both young Black girls and bees.
Kadeesa (Griffyx Cub) -- Nimako says he has a "fascination with mythology and hybridized forms." In creating this cat sculpture, he drew inspiration from the griffin, a mythological creature that is both lion and eagle, creating what he calls a "griffyx." "Greek mythology -- that's the go-to when we even just say the word 'mythology,'" he says. "The Sumerian culture came before the Greek culture rose up, and the Sumerians were Black. Who's to say that some of these elements that we now view as Eurocentric mythology didn't have its roots in some form of African mythology?"
The Bandit Queen of Walatah -- The artist likes to explore what he calls "speculative reclamation," in which people from one culture take back narratives which now belong to another culture, but which they speculate were likely taken from them due to a history of appropriation. Here, the "Bandit Queen of Walatah" re-imagines the English character of Robin Hood as an African woman in the Sahara Desert that robbed slave traders, freed the enslaved and returned ill-gotten goods to the people from which they were taken.
Kumbi Saleh 3020 CE -- Nimako used around 100,000 Lego pieces to transport the medieval African city of Kumbi Saleh into the future, inspired by Ghana's own history. After gaining independence in 1957, the former British colony known as the Gold Coast changed its name to Ghana, after the medieval kingdom of Ghana. For this piece, Nimako says he wanted to do the same thing, reaching "back into the past from this ancient kingdom," and then imagining another change in 1,000 years with a "neo-kingdom of Ghana and this new Kumbi Saleh."
Khartoum -- In his "Building Black: Amorphia" series, he explores African masquerade and mask-making traditions, while threading together organic forms and interstellar vessels. Nimako grew up with austere Ghanaian masks all over his home. "I saw the faces of my ancestors in these masks, in every angle of every cheekbone. There was my own genealogy, my own family history kind of exhibited in these wooden visages," he says.
Mantawutu -- He thinks that his work can put "a spotlight on various different aspects of Black culture that the world will gravitate to." He says that by using plastic Lego bricks to recreate traditionally wooden masks, you see all the angles, the shadows and the interplay of light reflecting off the works, which gives them a very "futuristic" look.
Simis -- The series inspired Nimako's "Building Beyond" workshops, which provide kits to help people imagine and build representations of their own descendants using facial templates called "legacies." He thinks that "it can help to foster sensitivity and understanding of complex cultures and ethnic groups."
World on a Camel's Back -- This sculpture is on display at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto as part of its "Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time" exhibition, which travels back in time across the Sahara Desert to recount stories of medieval African empires. "Whether they're bringing gold salts or other burial materials, or minerals and art, so many things were carried on the backs of camels across this treacherous desert to bring our culture to the world," says Nimako.
Solace -- His newest series, "Building Black: Graphica," focuses on wildstyle graffiti and the written word. Nimako is fascinated by the "cryptic" nature of wildstyle graffiti, which involves intricate geometric letters. The sculpture here spells out "solace." While the form of it is "jagged" and has "sharp points to it and geometries shooting out at different angles," he says, "the word is indicative of peace, harmony."
