The Definitive History of Ghanaian Fantasy Coffins AKA FAVs AKA Fantastic Afterlife Vehicles — Ernie Wolfe Gallery

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1655 Sawtelle Blvd
Los Angeles, CA, 90025
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Drawing on 40+ years of field collecting in both East and West Africa, the Ernie Wolfe Gallery specializes in juxtaposition exhibitions between the works of modern American, often Southern California based artists, and those of contemporary African painters and sculptors, as well as traditional tribal sculpture and furniture.

FAV'S —Fantastic Afterlife Vehicles from Ghana | A History of Ghana's Fantasy Coffin Tradition

Ernie Wolfe III in 1991 with the late great FAV artists, Kane Kwei and and his son Sowah Kwei, in their workshop, outside of Accra, Ghana, c. 1990

Ernie Wolfe III in 1991 with the late great FAV artists, Kane Kwei and and his son Sowah Kwei, in their workshop, outside of Accra, Ghana, c. 1990

Ghana has a long tradition of celebrating the passage to the afterlife. Starting in the middle of the 20th century, long before dancing Ghanaian pallbearers became a staple of internet memetics, a select few artists, carpenters, and painters created custom, colorful, hand-carved vehicles in which the deceased would be buried and transferred to the great beyond. These so-called Fantastic Afterlife Vehicles (FAVs) have become one of the signature artistic traditions of Ghana.

First popularized in the workshop of the late Kane Kwei, and continuing through the work of his workshop head Theophilius Nii Anum Sowah, Eric Kwei, Paa Joe, and others, these sculptures have been exhibited and celebrated in museums and galleries worldwide.

Check out more photos from Ernie Wolfe III’s 30 years being a part of this tradition, during which he photographed and documented every stage of the FAV process from ideation to ultimate ceremonial burial.

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