Patrick Tagoe-Turkson

Patrick Tagoe-Turkson: Ghanaian Sustainable Art, Upcycled Flip-Flops and Ocean Memory

Patrick Tagoe-Turkson is a Ghanaian contemporary artist born in 1978. Known for his vibrant mixed-media works made from upcycled flip-flops, discarded rubber and plastic waste, he transforms found materials into textured compositions that speak of memory, migration, ecology, recovery and cultural value.

His practice occupies a distinctive place within contemporary African art, where material transformation becomes a form of storytelling. By collecting flip-flops found floating in the Atlantic Ocean in Southern Ghana, Tagoe-Turkson turns discarded objects into visual archives of movement, consumption, loss and renewal.

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From Ocean Waste to Objects of Value

Patrick Tagoe-Turkson’s work begins with materials that have already lived several lives. Flip-flops, plastic fragments and discarded rubber are gathered, cut, altered, arranged and reassembled into vivid surfaces. What was once treated as waste becomes a carrier of colour, rhythm and memory.

This transformation is central to the meaning of his practice. The artist does not simply recycle materials; he changes their status. The flip-flop, a humble and global object of everyday use, becomes an “Object of Value”, charged with traces of travel, labour, migration, erosion and the movement of bodies across land and sea.

Texture, Rhythm and the Legacy of Ghanaian Visual Culture

Tagoe-Turkson’s compositions are often built through repetition, balance and intricate pattern. Their surfaces can recall woven structures, textile traditions and the visual rhythm of Ghanaian culture, particularly the layered logic of Kente fabrics. Colour is not applied as decoration; it emerges from the material itself.

The resulting works are tactile and optical at once. Strips of rubber and plastic produce fields of movement, where colour shifts according to distance, angle and light. Their beauty is inseparable from their material history, creating a tension between the seductive surface and the environmental realities behind it.

Art, Ecology and the Atlantic Shore

The Atlantic Ocean plays a crucial role in Patrick Tagoe-Turkson’s practice. The materials he uses are often found along the coast of Southern Ghana, where the sea returns objects shaped by human consumption and global circulation. These fragments become evidence of ecological imbalance, but also of possible transformation.

Through this process, Tagoe-Turkson acts as artist, archivist, environmental witness, weaver and storyteller. His works ask how value is assigned, how materials remember, and how art can make visible the hidden journeys of objects that modern life too easily discards.

Teaching, Performance and Material Experimentation

Patrick Tagoe-Turkson holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the College of Art at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. Alongside his work as a visual artist, he is also active as a photographer, performance artist and teacher.

This multidisciplinary background informs the breadth of his practice. His works move between sculpture, textile, installation and environmental art, while remaining grounded in a precise material language. They are at once poetic and critical, inviting viewers to consider beauty, waste, memory and responsibility through the physical presence of transformed matter.

Selected Exhibitions, Art Fairs and Collections

Patrick Tagoe-Turkson’s work has been exhibited in Ghana, South Korea, South Africa, Austria, the United States and other countries. His exhibitions with OOA Gallery include Unseen Origins, a duo exhibition with DOFF, and Textures, a group exhibition focused on materiality and surface.

Further exhibition details and institutional collection information should be added here if a full CV becomes available. For now, I would avoid listing collections or awards individually unless they can be verified from a dedicated CV or institutional source.

Available Works

Explore a selection of available works by Patrick Tagoe-Turkson at OOA Gallery, including mixed-media works made from upcycled flip-flops, discarded rubber and plastic waste that explore ecology, migration, ocean memory, texture and the transformation of waste into value.