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IWD March Spotlight Artists: Amatullah Alhassan, Tia Coker, and Baaba Sarpong
- THE.CCART
- 6 days ago
- 2 min read
In celebration of International Women’s Day, THE.CCART shines a light on three women artists whose practices reflect personal history, cultural identity, and the many ways women’s stories are carried through art. Amatullah Alhassan, Tia Coker, and Baaba Sarpong each approach their work from deeply personal starting points, transforming memory, tradition, and lived experience into powerful visual narratives. Together, their practices honour the complexity, resilience, and creativity of women across cultures.
Amatullah Alhassan: Geometry, and Black Womanhood
Amatullah Alhassan is a Nigerian artist whose work centres self-expression, memory, and the emotional depth of Black womanhood. Self-taught and driven by curiosity, she began painting seriously in 2020, developing a visual language that moves beyond realism into something instinctive and deeply personal.
Her paintings often feature Black women adorned in head ties and traditional dress, rendered through layered lines and geometric forms that bring structure to emotion and imagination. Rooted in culture and lived experience, her work celebrates pride, softness, and identity while honouring the beauty of African heritage.
Recurring elements such as sunflowers introduce themes of hope, renewal, and joy, reflecting moments of personal change and migration. Through colour, symbolism, and storytelling, Alhassan creates paintings that invite reflection while affirming the presence and everyday beauty of Black women.
Tia Coker: Braiding Memory and Ancestry
Tia Coker is a British Nigerian artist based in Essex whose practice centres on hair as sculpture, drawing, and cultural memory. Working with synthetic hair, wire, and beads, she transforms braiding traditions into sculptural forms that honour Black identity and heritage.
Viewing the head as a sacred space, Coker explores hair as a vessel of history, resilience, and political expression. Her new series, “The First Mother — Becoming Again,” reflects on origins, ancestry, and the cyclical nature of identity and transformation. Through carefully constructed braided forms, she considers the ways hair carries memory, lineage, and connection across generations.
Influenced by childhood memories of women styling hair within community spaces, Coker’s work highlights protection, beauty, and belonging. In her hands, braiding becomes more than style; it becomes sculpture, archive, and a living connection to ancestral knowledge.
Baaba Sarpong: Painting Emotion and Memory
Baaba Sarpong is a Ghanaian visual artist based in Accra whose expressive figurative paintings draw from personal memory and emotional experience. Her work explores themes of femininity, mental health, and the lasting impact of childhood environments.
Influenced by early experiences of household instability, Sarpong’s paintings feature organic tones and recurring motifs such as brain cells, reflecting on how trauma and memory shape identity. By titling her works in Effutu, her native language, she reinforces cultural value and individuality within her practice.
Through painting, Sarpong invites viewers to confront vulnerability while considering healing as an act of strength, reflection, and self-definition.
This International Women’s Day, THE.CCART celebrates the work of Amatullah Alhassan, Tia Coker, and Baaba Sarpong. Their practices remind us that art can hold memory, challenge silence, and create space for reflection. Through painting, sculpture, and cultural storytelling, these artists continue to shape conversations around identity, heritage, and the lived experiences of women.
By THE.CCART
