The Ga Legacy in Colour at House of Estila: An Exhibition Review
Inside The Ga Legacy in Colour: Two Days of Art, Stories and Conversation at House of Estila
14th – 15th August 2026 | House of Estila, London
Some exhibitions end when the doors close. The Ga Legacy in Colour has never really felt like one of them.
After its six-month solo exhibition at Half Moon Theatre earlier this year, the collection returned to London for a two-day presentation at House of Estila on 14th –15th August.
The weekend brought together returning collectors, new visitors, friends, artists and people discovering Okaikoi and Ga culture for the first time.
What stood out most was the conversation.
People weren't simply looking at the work. They were asking questions: What does this symbol mean? What's the story behind this piece? Where did this come from?
And in some cases, one question led to an entirely different story.
When a Painting Makes You Ask Questions
One of the pieces that particularly caught people's attention was Amɛkɔ (Control).
At first, the bold composition draws you in. Then the story behind it begins to unfold.
Amɛkɔ reflects on the early period of colonisation and the three coastal forts built to exert control over trade and territory: Christiansborg Castle, James Fort and Ussher Fort.
But the work also carries a much more specific and painful history.
It honours three ex-servicemen, Sergeant Cornelius Francis Adjetey, Corporal Patrick Attipoe and Private Odartey Lamptey who marched peacefully to Christiansborg Castle in Accra on 28 February 1948 to petition for the pensions, benefits and employment they had been promised after serving in the Second World War.
They were met with gunfire.
Their deaths became a turning point, which sparked the 1948 Accra riots and strengthening the movement that would eventually lead Ghana towards independence.
It was the kind of story that changed the way people looked at the artwork.
What initially appeared to be a striking contemporary piece became an entry point into a moment of Ghanaian history that many visitors had never encountered in this way.
And that is part of what Ga Legacy in Colour is trying to do: create a reason to look, then give people a reason to ask.
Then Came a Story From Home
If Amɛkɔ opened the door to a significant moment in Ghana's national history, Amɛtee "They went together" brought the story much closer to home.
This piece is rooted in Kukueley's grandmother's story, a memory of her and her friends.
That personal connection resonated with visitors.
There was something different about hearing a story that had travelled through generations of a family and then seeing it transformed into a contemporary artwork.
The piece became a reminder that history isn't only found in textbooks, archives or monuments.
Sometimes it is held in the stories grandparents tell. Sometimes it survives through a memory shared between friends. Sometimes it becomes a piece of art.
Amɛtee also connects to the wider history surrounding the 1948 Accra riots, linking personal memory with a defining moment in Ghana's journey towards independence.
That connection between the personal and the historical was one of the things that made the weekend particularly meaningful.
Visitors weren't only asking about what the artwork represented. They were beginning to talk about their own family stories.
Familiar Symbols, New Eyes
For some visitors, the Ga language and Gã Samai symbols throughout the exhibition were familiar.
For others, they were completely new.
That difference created some of the most interesting conversations across the two days.
Visitors stopped in front of works to ask about individual symbols, their meanings and how they had been brought into a contemporary visual language.
For returning collectors, there was an opportunity to spend more time with works they had encountered before.
For new visitors, the exhibition offered a first introduction to a visual language they may never have encountered in a gallery before.
And for Okaikoi, that exchange is important.
The work isn't intended to simply preserve something from the past.
It is about keeping the conversation moving.
A Conversation With Kukueley
One of the highlights of the weekend was a conversation between Karolina Barns (House of Estila) and Kukueley Maclean, exploring the thinking behind Ga Legacy in Colour and the journey that brought the collection together.
The discussion moved between process, colour, Ga Samai, history and the personal stories behind individual works.
The Q&A that followed opened the conversation further.
Questions moved from technique and artistic process towards identity, heritage and the experience of carrying culture between places.
And perhaps that was the most fitting part of the weekend. The artworks had already started conversations. The Q&A gave those conversations somewhere to go.
More Than Looking
There was also a lighter side to the weekend.
Visitors took part in a game for the chance to win Okaikoi pieces, bringing a playful energy into the space and creating some of the weekend's biggest smiles.
There were conversations between people who had never met before. Collectors shared their favourite works. Visitors asked questions about symbols and stories.
The gallery became a meeting point.
Because while an exhibition can place a story on a wall, people are what carry that story beyond the gallery.
What We Took Away
The House of Estila weekend reminded us that Ga Legacy in Colour can be experienced in many different ways.
You might come for the colour. You might stay for the symbolism. You might discover a piece of history you didn't know. Or you might recognise something of your own family in a story that began somewhere else.
For some visitors, it was Amɛkɔ and the story of three servicemen whose deaths became part of Ghana's journey towards independence.
For others, it was Amɛtee and the deeply personal story of a grandmother and her friends.
And for others, it was simply the first time they had encountered Ga language and Gã Samai presented through contemporary art.
Perhaps that's what made the weekend special. There wasn't one way to experience the collection.
There was simply an invitation to look a little longer.
The Story Continues
The House of Estila weekend has now come to a close, but the stories within Ga Legacy in Colour continue.
The collection began as an exploration of Ga language, Gã Samai symbols, history and memory. Through exhibitions, conversations and the people who encounter the work, those stories continue to move between generations and places.
Selected works from the collection remain available, and private commissions offer an opportunity to explore the visual language of Ga Legacy in Colour in a more personal way.
If a particular piece stayed with you after the exhibition, we'd love to hear from you.
https://okaikoi.com/collections/exhibition-the-ga-legacy-in-colour
Enquire about a private commission →
And if you weren't able to make it to House of Estila this time, this isn't the end of the story.
There is more to come from Okaikoi.