Daniel Kojo Schrade

Daniel Kojo Schrade, associate professor of art, studied in Germany and Spain. He received an M.F.A. from the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, Germany.

His paintings and installations have been presented internationally including the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo/Oaxaca-Mexico; Alliance Francais/Kumasi-Ghana; Haus der Kunst/Munchen-Germany; Muzej Grada/Rijeka-Croatia; and the Mead Art Museum at Amherst College, MA. He has taught painting at the Kwame Nkrumah University/Kumasi-Ghana; the Academy of Fine Arts Munich; and the State Academy Rotenfels-Germany.

His work includes repeated motifs such as the "Afronaut" figure, and textual elements in the cycle entitled, "Brother Beethoven," a series he started in 1999.

Daniel Kojo Schrade was a Copeland Fellow at Amherst College and has received grants and awards from the Cusanuswerk Foundation/Bonn-Germany, the Academy of Fine Arts Munich, and the District Government of Bavaria. His work is represented in various permanent collections such as those of the Museo de Cuenca/Spain; MACO/Mexico; the Bayerische Staatsgemaeldesammlung/Munich; Collection Diehl/Silvaplana-Swiss; and Collection Morat/Freiburg-Germany.

Recent and Upcoming Courses

Scavenging Color & Light I: Introduction to Representational Painting and Collective,Abstract Work
This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of painting, such as composition, value, and color. Students will learn about material and the technical issues of painting. Drawings will often be produced in tandem with paintings in order to illuminate visual ideas. We will work with water based and oil based paint on various surfaces. Besides creating individual paintings, students will collectively prepare and work on large-scale canvases. This course will develop from individual representational set-ups towards collective, abstract work. Regular class critiques will assist in examining formal composition principles. The course will focus on the work of non-western contemporary artists and we will discuss historic work examples from a post-colonial perspective. Readings and one paper on an artist to be assigned will be part of this class. Assignments require students to work independently outside of class.
Vagabonding Images: Abstraction and Non-Representational Painting
The significance of artistic practice aims beyond the artist's capability to create an illusion of reality. Art is teaching us to reinterpret the world and develop utopias. This course offers students to explore abstraction and non-representational painting and will also investigate the indistinct border between painting and installation art. Students are encouraged -through readings, digital image lectures, and assignments- to develop an individual approach to the subject matter. This course will address issues such as alternative methods of image making, composition and color theory, while exploring transcultural abstract art in its various manifestations. We will also investigate abstract art in relation to political activism. This course is open to students who completed a studio-art/film course on an introductory level in addition to an art theory course.
Field Study
Thinking is Form: Introductory and Intermediate Drawing-Projects
This course will introduce students to the practice and the appreciation of graphic expression. We will focus on studio work, class discussion, and critique, while exploring the role of drawing in contemporary art. Assignments will address drawing from objects, the human figure, various spaces, and imagination. Students will learn to work with traditional and unconventional resources, large scale, small scale, and no materials at all. The course is designed for students with little previous experience in drawing, but flexible enough to challenge Division II studio-art concentrators.
The In-Between - Painting Installations
This course is going to explore the limits of painting. Students will create work within the ambiguous space between painting and installation art. Investigating the expressive potential alternative materials provide, students are going to advance their own relationship to composition, mark making and surface by integrating two dimensional and three dimensional decision-making within their own working practice. Through museum visits, demonstrations, slideshows, videos, and readings with a focus on non-western art, the course examines the historical and contemporary presence of painting installations. While assigned projects will help students navigate ways of translating these suggestions into their own work, there is a strong emphasis on producing work through experimentation and rigorous play.
Introduction to Representational Painting and Collective,
This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of painting, such as composition, value, and color. Students will learn about material and the technical issues of painting. Drawings will often be produced in tandem with paintings in order to illuminate visual ideas. We will work with water based and oil based paint on various surfaces. Besides creating individual paintings, students will collectively prepare and work on large-scale canvases. This course will develop from individual representational set-ups towards collective, abstract work. Regular class critiques will assist in examining formal composition principles. The course will focus on the work of non-western contemporary artists and we will discuss historic work examples from a post-colonial perspective. Readings and one paper on an artist to be assigned will be part of this class. Assignments require students to work independently outside of class.
Intersections in Painting, Performance and Installation
El Anatsui, Hannah Hoch, Gabriel Orozco, William Pope L., Yinka Shonibare, Ghada Amer, Wangechi Mutu, Louise Bourgeois, Anish Kapoor, David Hammons. Since the 1960s, the variety of an increasing choice of media has created more diverse working fields for artists. While this may make it easier for more artists to find areas of expression, it may also be more difficult for students to map their own artistic language. This course is designed for students who are starting to develop their own personality as artists. Experimenting with materials, techniques, and styles, on the basis of collective readings and written personal statements, will be central to this class. Readings, assigned slide-presentations and class discussions will be informed by the work of non-western contemporary artists.