OWUSU ANSAH
SCULPTOR. STAINED GLASS & ETCHED GLASS MASTER. GRAPHIC DESIGNER. CALLIGRAPHER
Owusu Ansah is the founder of Owusu Studio – a Small Studio with Unlimited Design and Production Capabilities. A studio, where client input is encouraged and the final result is dictated by client needs and the artist’s own creative instincts. Owusu has been a resident of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for over 43 years. He studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (the oldest art college and museum in America) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated from that institution in 1983. He later received both his Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 and 1986 respectively. He also obtained two years of training in sculpture foundry techniques at the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture in Mercerville, New Jersey.
Owusu is proficient in the art of stained glass and well versed in carved and etched glass designs. He considers himself the best etched-glass designer on the East Coast of USA. Owusu works in all media in sculpture, including small and monumental sizes. He is an expert in classic sculpture, and multi-stylist/cultural art form where, as a sculptor, he adopts any style that best suits the purpose of the sculpture at hand. He is also a graphic designer and creates poetry and philosophical writings finished in calligraphy, oftentimes with accompanying illustrations. In a word, his commissioned art projects, spanning the course of over four decades, reflect a number of different disciplines and media.
He has also been consulted by many established stained glass and etched glass companies in the city of Philadelphia, for project designing and executions. The Willet Hauser Architectural Glass Company and South Street Stained Glass represent two such companies. For over 13 years, he was the chief etched and carved glass designer of the former Philadelphia Art Glass Company. Through his artistic contributions, this company became the leading carved and etched glass design company on the East Coast, with clients throughout the United States. With the death of its owner came the demise of the company but not before its owner offered to sell the company to Owusu, knowing that the company might continue to prosper given Owusu’s seriousness and dedication. Owusu believed, however, that the commitment required to successfully manage a large company, would distract him from his calling as an artist.
ETCHED/CARVED GLASS
From 1996 – present: Owusu has designed and executed a number of art projects, including:
* Ed Hengel’s Seascape (5 large 44”x44” each) stair rail etched/carved glass panels in Naples, Florida
* Ed Hengel’s Cigar Room Forest Scenes (7 large 72”x42” each) etched/carved glass panels, Winona, Minnesota
* Renewal Presbyterian Church Tower Windows (8 large 18ft. x 6ft. each) etched glass panels, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
* A carved glass of Saint Vincent Pollatti for Saint Pollatti Seminary in West Hyattsville, Maryland
* A carved and etched glass, titled “Annunciation” for Assumption Church in Galloway Township, New Jersey
* An etched glass of Charles Adams for the Charles Adams Fine Arts Hall at the University of Pennsylvania
FIREFIGHTERS AWARDS
Owusu has designed over 100 custom Firefighter’s retirement, memorial and transfer awards. Images of fire engines, ladders, medics, rescue trucks, Maltese cross designs or portraits of firefighters are etched permanently on 1/4” mirror or glass with carved and gold-foiled inscriptions.
STAINED GLASS
Owusu has designed new windows or restored many old stained glass windows to their original luster for many churches and residential homes in the Philadelphia area. Among them are:
* Tenth Presbyterian Church
* The Church of Saint Andrews and Monica Episcopal
* Greater Mount Olive AME Church
* The City School church building in West Philadelphia...
In 2007, Owusu and South Street Stained Glass Company completed and installed five large stained glass windows for Antioch Baptist Church of Corona, New York. Four of these windows measure 19’ x 9’ each and the fifth window measures 13’ x 9’. On this project, Owusu served as the stained glass engineer, by producing scaled drawings and enlarging the original drawings from 18” x 10” to 19’ x 9’, with specifications for windows/window panels, re-enforcement bars, mappings and glass cutting patterns. Owusu painted all the images on these stained glass windows. He also refined the original drawings by correcting anatomical problems, created new drawings where necessary and incorporated them in the original drawings. Owusu enhanced the original drawings, which were created by another artist, Bob Jefferson, and made them practical for stained glass work. He was the project overseer and the trouble-shooter for the installation of the windows.
In 1996, Owusu created, “The Flow of Life,” a stained glass depiction of hurdlers, lit by a custom made wooden light box. Dr. Eric Mitchell, orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, commissioned him to create a sports related artwork for his office.
SCULPTURE
In 1983, Owusu was commissioned by The Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the State of Washington and United Supreme Council to create a bronze bust of Dr. Russell Gideon, then Sovereign Grand Commander (Northern Jurisdiction), Prince Hall Free Masons.
Among his skillfully executed sculpture pieces are his:
* “Peace and Love Symbol” (forged steel, bronze and rosewood, 1986)
* “Weep Knot” (forged steel and maple wood, 67” x 18” x 17”, 1985)
* “Practice Without Thought” (Bronze, 1982)
* “Peace and Love Symbol” (112” x 21” x 18”), where, he argues, is one of the most complicated sculpture pieces ever forged and
* “Practice Without Thought” (75” x 45” x 12”), he contends, is one of the largest movable free-standing bronze bas-reliefs, which he single handedly cast in bronze.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
In May 2010, Owusu, after working tirelessly on his “Tribute to Penn” project (67 new University of Pennsylvania logos and designs) for nearly 20 years, he brought this project to completion. At the end he produced a 48 page (25”x19”) master portfolio of this project titled: “Tribute to Penn. P = Pen = Penn.” The following year he also, designed and published these logos and designs in a 40 page (8.5” x 11”) art catalog.
Copies of the catalog have been distributed to the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Amy Gutmann, members of the Trustee and the Alumni Board of Directors, amongst others. He believes that these new designs and logos, if utilized, will revitalize the university’s image and enhance Penn’s brand without losing sight of its storied traditions.
POEMS AND CALLIGRAPHY
Owusu has completed over twenty poems and philosophical writings, all scripted in different styles of calligraphy with matching illustrations and designs for each theme. The sizes of these scrolls or designed writings range from 17” x 14” to 36” x 24”.
AWARDS
In 1983 Owusu became the second Black sculptor to win the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (the oldest art college and museum in America) Traveling Scholarship. Also in the same year, he was selected as one of the six (6) recipients of the 1983 African American Museum in Philadelphia Award for Special Recognition. There, he received the “Outstanding Contributions to the World Current of Thought and the Arts.” Among the six (6) recipients of the Special Recognition Award at the ceremony were: The Honorable Wilson Goode, the first African American Mayor of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; The Honorable Joseph Coleman, the first African American City Council Chairman of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Dr. Bernard C. Watson, professor, author, presidential appointee, community activist and president of the William Penn Foundation.
PERSONAL
Owusu says his mastery of many disciplines in art did not come by choice but through challenges in life and God, through Christ, who has guided him to channel these trials into something beneficial. Michelangelo and Leonardo Da Vinci are the artists he admires most. He believes the sacrifices and contributions these 2 great artists made to the art world and the world as a whole, are beyond measurement. He is represented in private collections and has exhibited locally and nationally.