About

From Gilbert, Arizona (AZ). At home everywhere.

Biography 

Godshand Owusu-Appiah is a Ghanaian metal artist currently based in Phoenix, Arizona. He is enthusiastic about creating awareness for a balance between human resources and technology in this current era. Owusu-Appiah was born in Akrokerri, a suburb of Obuasi in the Ashanti region of Ghana. Prior to coming to Arizona State University, he received an MFA degree in Jewelry and Metalsmithing from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Kumasi.
Owusu-Appiah is in his final year of graduate studies in the Metals department of Arizona State University. Recently he has been awarded a Donald N. Rabiner Travel Grant to attend The Digital Stone Project in Gramolazzo (Italy) and has also been a recipient of GPSA (Graduate and Professional Students Association) and Professional Development award. Owusu-Appiah was awarded a temporary public art project from ASU’s Mesa Art Center and has exhibited in galleries throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Artist Statement
Through metalsmithing, I create awareness about how we perceive value in our environment taking into consideration humanity, Land, and the technological era. My goal is to re-introduce how the old generation perceived value as compared to our contemporary world. Fascinated by the interplay of structural fabrication and surface texturing, I create my sculptural works using steel pipes and the repousse technique in metal art to depict and associate environmental element with a symbolic large scale cowrie shell. These exaggerated cowrie sculptures tells a story of value for humanity, our worth in the contemporary world and how it has evolved with time. Addressing the need to reclaim and balance values between our environment and technological advancement.
These sculptures speak volumes of how this era is gradually reducing the value for human resources in industrial processes. There is a high benefit in engaging artificial intelligence as creatives but balancing both values of human resource and technology, is something I believe will sustain us for the future. I sometimes like to use other means like paintings and miniature sculptures to project same idea of balancing values.
Recently, I worked with a new technology called 7 axis robot at the Digital Stone Carving residency and this was inspired by the desire to project the idea of balancing human creativity and the current technology as we advance in the future.  These robots are programmed with 3D models to help the sculptor carve huge marble stones from a seven points approach. This idea perfectly aligns with my vision of balancing human resources with technology in our line of work rather than making robots work Autonomous.