Deadly Prey Gallery: movie posters made by Ghanaian artists

Deadly Prey Gallery was born in 2012 and is dedicated to disseminating the art of these Ghanaian artists, whose history dates back to the 1980s.

Those of us who love cinema with all our might highly value the art that is made in the promotional posters Of the movies. There are beautiful and mythical posters that date back to the era when they were made by hand. Today, for the most part, they are done in digital format, which also has great merit. But there is nothing that can be compared to what it exhibits Deadly Prey Gallery.

It is a Chicago-based traveling art gallery, but which has roots linked to Accra, in Ghana. Its aim is to spread, preserve and support the community of Ghanaian painters dedicated to the profession of painting movie posters.

The Deadly Prey Gallery association houses over 1,000 posters recounting the 30-year history of the sign-making profession in Ghana. Brian Chankinowner of a video store in Chicago, is also an expert in dark, classic and underground cinema.

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When he had his video store, called Odd Obsession Movies, Chankin started decorating his walls with the Ghanaian movie posters. Shortly thereafter, Chankin came into contact with robert kofia man who was quite familiar with the film poster artist industry in Ghana during the 1990s.

As a result, Deadly Prey Gallery was born in 2012 and since then has been dedicated to disseminating the art of these Ghanaian artists, whose history dates back to the 1980s.

Ghanaian Film Poster Painters: A Peculiar Story

In the late 1980s, there arose mobile cinemas in ghana, who visited remote towns where there were no movie theaters or electricity. The owners of these video stores brought a television, a recorder, VHS tapes and a portable light generator with which they toured the nation and offered cinema functions in different places.

In these spaces you could see everything: from classic movies of terror hflagpole ribbons action Americans and a lot of cinema that emerged from bollywood. There was no lack of Asian productions of Martial Arts. It was also a space for Ghanaian and Nigerian filmmakers They could show their films.

But it was needed advertising for those events, so projectionists would go to local artists to commission posters for the films they were showing. In this way, local painters made their living making these signs, either imitating the original designs, or making their own creations.

Ghanaian movie poster painters took certain freedoms because they didn’t know the movies. The artist represented what the video operator was telling or showing. Some of these posters were placed outside cinemas in major Ghanaian cities, such as Accra and Kumasi. However, most of them were intended for mobile cinemas that reached the poorest provinces.

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Images: Deadly Prey Gallery

These posters stand out for exploiting aspects such as sex, terror or violence to attract the attention of the audience. Another curious fact regarding these Ghanaian movie posters is that the painters used flour sacks as canvaswhich also caused many posters to wear out and not survive the test of time.

Sadly, traveling theater shows and poster making succumbed to the advent of easy access to movies, plus printing became cheaper to use, making it easier to commission a poster than have it done by someone else. hand.

It must be recognized that many posters rescued by Dead Prey Gallery are true jewels of creativity. There is no doubt that the art of making movie posters required a lot of effort and great creative ability to capture the idea of ​​a film on a canvas.

Images: Deadly Prey Gallery

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