Amartey often turns to his Anglo-Scottish and Ghanian ancestry by way of a Rastafarian upbringing as a point of departure from which to explore the seemingly contradictory fabric of our human condition and invites viewers to join him in this self implicating endeavour. 

 

Preferring to work with mediums he is untrained in, he creates removed or dreamlike spaces in which to locate characters experiencing moments of immutable change – points of no return in how they identify and act in the world.

 

Amartey’s work is intuitive and focuses on visceral communication, aiming to make work that draws from the valuable conversations taking place within the communities he resides in, while putting those perspectives under scrutiny.

 

Being born between conflicting cultures Amartey has been fascinated by identifying the pervasive themes that tie different and often contrasting groups of people together and the unexpected ways these traits manifest within the individual and community.