“I started drawing on sand at the age of three. At age six, when I started my schooling, I began drawing on paper and wood boards. Sometimes I used to draw stories from old calendars and from the Bible about our ancient ancestors. After that, I decided to learn to be a good time artist.”

— Dan Nyankumah in Extreme Canvas 2 (2012) by Ernie Wolfe III, pg. 63

Born 1969. Also written as Dan Nyenkumah, Dan Nyenkrumah, Dan Nyankrumah. First generation apprentice of Joe Mensah. The titan of the Joe Mensah school of exacting detail. Painted movie posters from the early to mid/late 1990s. A king of of abstracted hyper detail and realism. Unusual ability to combine rippling, straight line, and circular motifs with equal aplomb, all in the same work. Paints with confidence, albeit somewhat reluctantly. Not a prolific painter. No detail, from snake scales to eyelashes, too exacting to depict if he feels it necessary. Painted cover image of Extreme Canvas (2000) by Ernie Wolfe III (Beauty of the Barbarian). Careful inspection will reveal nary a spot of single tone paint to be found on one of his posters. Loves to paint on paint. Loves to paint fire. Small swirling orbs of molten grapes of fire are a specialty. Achieves detailed dimensionality by projecting curvilinear form off the poster’s plane through obsessive over-painting. Switched over to computer graphic design, circa 1997, during the crash of the hand-painted movie poster tradition.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS:

1993: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

1996: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica

1999: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2001: Death-Stalking Sleep-Walking Barbarian Ninja Terminators: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles, (voted best exhibition of 2001 by LA Weekly)

2001 – 2002: Extreme Canvas: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2001: “Extreme Canvas”, Cavin Morris Gallery, New York, NY September 2001

2003: Seven from Ghana, Sundance Film Festival, Park City, UT January 2003

2003: Outrageous Supercharge: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA

2004: Africa Screams, Iwalewa-Haus Afrikazentrum der Universitat Bayreuth, 2004

Traveled to Vienna November 2004 – February 2005

2006: Extreme Canvas, Center for African American Culture, Pittsburgh, PA

2006: Serpents, Mermaids and Action Heroes, Parkland College Art Gallery, Champaign, IL

2008: “Extreme Canvas: Hand Painted Movie Posters from Ghana”, ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood, CA

2009: “Out of Africa: Obama and McCain Praise Portraits and Visual Narratives”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles; Reviewed in the Los Angeles Times on May 21, 1999, by art critic David Pagel

2009: “No This Is It: Michael Jackson, 25 Years of Praise Portraits”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2012: “Michael Jackson in the After-Life: Praise Portraits and Commentary Paintings from Ghana”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2013: Wow Women, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2013: The Horror The Horror!, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, curated by Brandon Boyd

2013: “Viva Mandela!”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2014: Knock Off – Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange, CA

2014: “Ghana Pop”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2014: Continental Convergence: Hand-Painted Martial Arts Posters from Ghana, Mandarin Plaza, Chinatown, Los Angeles

2016: Kung Fu in Africa: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana (1985-1999), Hanart TZ, Hong Kong

2017 - 2018: Ghana Paints Hollywood: Hand Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT curated by Ernie Wolfe III

2019: Macro/Micro: Bronze/Canvas: Gwynn Murrill & Bob Graham, Africatta & Joe Mensah, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2019 – 2020, Baptized by Beefcake: The Golden Age of Hand Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Poster House, New York, NY co-curated by Ernie Wolfe III and Angelina Lippert

PUBLICATIONS:

2000: Extreme Canvas: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Ernie Wolfe III, Dilettante Press, 2000

2000: Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine, Ernie Wolfe III, Nov/Dec 2000, pages 44-51

2003 New York Times Magazine, “Why We Love Fashion? It’s Universal; Planet Ghana”, Ernie Wolfe III, February 23, 2003

2009: African Arts, Volume 42, number 3, 20, Autumn 2009, “The Radiance of the King”, Don Cosentino

2012: Extreme Canvas 2: The Golden Age of Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Ernie Wolfe III, Kesho/Malaika Press, 2012