When Broken Bones Become Maps of Healing and Identity| Abena Oyiwaa
In this interview for the Arts to Hearts Project, we sit down with Ghanaian visual artist Angelina Ampofo Asomaning, known professionally as Abena Oyiwaa, to explore the incredible journey behind her work. A self-taught painter with a background in accounting, Abena opens up about how she transitioned from numbers to paintbrushes, carving out a deeply personal and socially conscious art practice she calls Afro-fem Surrealism.
Through our conversation, she shares how themes like motherhood, emotional growth, resilience, and the complexity of womanhood fuel her paintings. With symbolic elements like gold-toned bones and surreal anatomy, her work becomes a visual language of strength, healing, and self-acceptance.
From her reflections on self-portraiture to her experiences exhibiting both locally and in the Metaverse, this interview gives us a glimpse into her creative process and what it means to reclaim space, tell women’s stories authentically, and grow at one’s own pace.
And guess what? Abena Oyiwaa is one of the featured artists in our magazine, Issue#9, alongside many talented artists worldwide. Want a sneak peek? Grab your copy now from our shop and enjoy the fantastic artwork created by this global Community.
https://shop.artstoheartsproject.com/products/the-creative-process-book
My name is Angelina Ampofo Asomaning, professionally known as Abena Oyiwaa. I am a self-taught visual artist based in Accra, Ghana, primarily in oil paint on canvas and digital art. My academic background is in accounting—I hold a BSc in Accounting in Education from the University of Education, Winneba (Kumasi campus), Ghana, and I previously studied Business at Aggrey Memorial AME Zion Senior High School in Cape Coast, Ghana. My journey into art began in 2020 after completing my National Service—a one-year civic obligation required by the Ghanaian constitution for all graduates of accredited tertiary institutions.
During this period, I deeply reflected on what truly brings me joy and how I could contribute meaningfully to society. That search led me to art. My creative practice centres on the representation of womanhood and women’s social roles, with recurring themes of motherhood, resilience, and sustainability. I describe my style as Afro-Fem Surrealism—a fusion of surreal portraiture and African feminist thought. My work celebrates women in solitude and reflection, offering a meditative space where they are seen not in service to others, but fully present with themselves. I often incorporate anatomical elements, such as parts of the human skeleton, to symbolically depict inner strength and the layered complexity of the female experience.
Ultimately, my work celebrates womanhood, sisterhood, and the freedom to exist on one’s terms. Through painting, I advocate for women to take charge of their health, define their own paths, and embrace personal growth at an authentic pace, free from the weight of societal expectations.
1. How did your journey from accounting to Afro-fem Surrealism unfold, and what sparked that shift?
Coming from a family of bankers, it felt natural to pursue a degree in accounting at the time. But even as I followed that path, I held onto pencil sketching—a quiet passion I had nurtured since childhood. After graduating, with encouragement from friends and family, I began accepting commissioned pencil portraits. That period rekindled my love for visual storytelling. Interestingly, I’ve realised that numbers and art aren’t so different. Both require structure, rhythm, and a certain fluency.
Accounting taught me how to observe patterns, understand balance, and work within frameworks, which now inform how I build compositions and communicate emotion through form. Just like figures on a ledger can reveal a hidden story, my paintings shape internal landscapes that aren’t always easy to articulate. Along the way, I met artist Ahmed Partey, who became a mentor and played a pivotal role in helping me develop my voice and visual language.
Through his guidance, I began shaping what would become my signature style—Afro-fem Surrealism. As an African woman, I felt compelled to tell the stories of women around me in a way that wasn’t generic or surface-level. I wanted to explore deeply familiar yet often overlooked themes—like emotional labour, quiet strength, and the complexity of womanhood. That desire to dig deeper, to reveal what usually remains unspoken, was the true spark for my shift from accounting to art.
Afro-fem Surrealism is my way of contributing to larger feminist conversations—reclaiming narratives, amplifying silenced stories, and making room for new imaginings of what it means to be a woman—on our own terms.
2. Your work explores women’s emotions and growth—how do you translate those stories into surreal visuals?
Each stage of a woman’s growth carries a unique set of emotions—some shaped by societal expectations, others by personal choices and their consequences. My work captures this emotional complexity by focusing on what animates women from within. I translate these layered experiences into surreal visuals using symbolic elements: gold-toned bones to represent inner strength and fragility, expressive facial gestures to convey emotional nuance, and plants as metaphors for transformation and regeneration.
I also incorporate unexpected features—like hourglasses, clenched fists placed in unconventional body parts, or broken bones deliberately misplaced—to challenge the viewer’s perception and evoke deeper reflection. Through this visual language, I explore emotional growth, grief, misplaced priorities, reproductive health, and empowerment. My goal is to create imagery that feels both intimate and otherworldly, where the surreal becomes a mirror for inner truths.
3. What does “Afro-fem Surrealism” mean to you, and how did you define your style that way?
Afro-fem Surrealism is my interpretation of surrealist art that draws deeply from African women’s emotional experiences, inner lives, and societal realities. It’s a visual language I created to explore and express the tension between tradition and individuality—between what is expected of us and who we truly are. As an African woman, I’ve grown up surrounded by deeply ingrained societal norms about how women should behave, speak, dream, and even suffer—quietly. From early on, there’s a script laid out for us: to be selfless, to nurture, to sacrifice, to marry, to bear children, to endure.
Though often well-intentioned, these expectations can be suffocating and leave little room for complexity, emotion, or deviation. My art responds to that confinement by creating space for vulnerability, autonomy, and multiplicity. Through Afro-fem Surrealism, I try to carve out a conceptually and visually space where African women can be seen not just through the lens of duty or tradition, but as a whole, complex beings. I use symbolic elements like disjointed anatomy, hourglasses, plants, and gold-toned bones to explore themes such as emotional resilience, reproductive health, misplaced priorities, grief, and rebirth.
These images challenge traditional notions of femininity and offer alternative representations that are surreal, layered, and often unsettling, because womanhood itself can be all of those things. Beyond just creating art, Afro-fem Surrealism is my way of contributing to larger feminist conversations, both in Ghana and globally. In spaces where feminism is sometimes misunderstood, resisted, or overly Westernised, I hope to offer a distinctly African, spiritually grounded, and emotionally honest perspective. My work stands as a form of visual activism: reclaiming narratives, amplifying silenced stories, and making room for new imaginings of what it means to be a woman, on our own terms.
4. How do your experiences shape the messages you want other women to take from your work?
My work is deeply personal—each piece carries fragments of my story and the lived experiences of women I know and love. These shared realities—our joys, struggles, silences, and strength—form the emotional foundation of my art. There’s a part of me in almost every painting, whether it’s in the posture of a figure, the symbolism used, or the mood it evokes. I often work with bones—sometimes gold, broken or misplaced—as a metaphor for what lies beneath the surface.
To me, bones represent vulnerability and resilience: the bare truths we carry, and the strength that holds us up even when we feel fractured. By placing them in surreal and unexpected ways, I give form to the invisible weight women carry through different stages of life. That said, I don’t create with a fixed message in mind. Instead, I want my work to be a mirror that allows women to recognise themselves, their inner worlds, and their untold stories. If someone walks away from my work feeling seen, held, or reminded that there is beauty in their bare bones and a place where they belong, I think my purpose as an artist has been fulfilled.
To me, self-acceptance means recognizing both my strengths and flaws—and making no bones about any of them.
Abena Oyiwaa
5. You’ve shown your art locally and in the Metaverse—how do these different spaces influence how your work is received?
I’ve had the honour of presenting my work across a range of spaces—through a solo exhibition, group shows both locally and internationally, virtual exhibitions, and even in the Metaverse. Each platform offers a unique experience, not just for me as an artist but also for the viewer. Viewing art in person allows for a more intimate, emotional connection—you can see the textures, feel the scale, and sense the energy in the room. On the other hand, digital and virtual spaces, though less tactile, offer something equally valuable: access and reach. Through online exhibitions and Metaverse showcases, my work can connect with people across the globe, many of whom may not have the opportunity to attend in-person shows. These different platforms help me bridge cultural and geographical gaps, allowing more people to encounter and relate to the stories I tell. That wider visibility is meaningful to me, especially because my work speaks to shared emotions and experiences that transcend borders.
6. What does self-acceptance mean to you, and how do you express that through your creative process?
Self-acceptance means recognising both my strengths and flaws—and making no bones about them. It’s about holding space for my whole self, taking responsibility for my actions and inactions, and showing up each day with a commitment to grow, not out of pressure, but out of love for who I am becoming. It’s not perfection I seek, but presence—being proud of who I am, even as I evolve. In my creative process, I express this by often making myself the muse. I explore my inner world through symbolic self-portraiture—raw, imperfect, and beautiful. Bones appear frequently in my work—not as a bone of contention, but as a symbol of inner strength, structure, and truth. They remind me that what lies beneath the surface—what we’re made of—is worth seeing. I hope to encourage other women to do the same by embracing my own form and story on canvas. My art offers a quiet invitation to fully accept oneself, celebrate beauty in all its bare and broken parts, and grow on one’s terms, free from the weight of societal timelines.
At its heart, Abena’s artwork is a bold and beautiful celebration of African womanhood that goes beyond appearances to reveal the inner strength, emotional complexity, and quiet power women carry. Through her unique style of Afro-fem Surrealism, she gives form to the often-unspoken layers of womanhood, using symbolic elements like gold-toned bones, plants, and surreal anatomy to reflect themes of resilience, growth, and self-acceptance.
From her beginnings as an accountant to her current life as a full-time artist, Abena’s journey reminds us that it’s never too late to reconnect with what truly brings you joy. Her work offers not just visual beauty but emotional truth—a mirror for other women to feel seen, heard, and held. To learn more about Abena, click the following links to visit her profile.
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