Movie Posters Fine Art

Paint on a flour sack, a hero three times larger than life. Hand-painted Ghanaian movie posters here were made on flour sack canvas to advertise films for traveling video clubs in Ghana. In the 1980s and 1990s, mobile operators toured towns with a television, a VCR and a generator, and commissioned local artists to paint a poster for each screening. The painters often worked from a title or a video cover rather than the film itself, which gave them generous freedom.

The results reimagine Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood films in bold color, with monsters, heroes and plot points that may or may not have appeared in the original. Some are framed; the rest are ready for a frame or a wall as they are. Hang one over a sofa or in a home theater, where it will outshine anything on the screen. Every poster promised more than the film delivered, which was rather the job.