Zohra Opoku, 0 keep not captive my soul, 0 keep not ward over my shadow, 2025.Photo Pauline Assathiany. Courtesy of the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim
5 Female Artists to (Re)Discover at Art Basel Paris 2025
"As Art Basel Paris 2025 prepares to open its doors for the weekend, Vogue France offers a journey shaped by women’s perspectives — from emerging galleries to more established names.
Opoku is featured at Mariane Ibrahim’s booth with a piece that encapsulates the artistic ambition of the German-Ghanaian artist. Combining screen printing on cotton and dyed denim with hand-sewn embroidery, the work reveals how deeply fashion is woven into Zohra Opoku’s DNA — she grew up in a family where women passed down their craft. She learned to sew early in life and has never abandoned the practice.
Created within the series The Myths of Eternal Life, begun in 2020, the work shown at Art Basel Paris explores the history of sewing through collages in which eras and colors blend and blur together. Conceived while the artist was diagnosed with breast cancer, the series evolved alongside her growing fascination with the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead and the afterlife. In Opoku’s hands, textile becomes a narrative form — one that incorporates multiple languages, including hieroglyphics."
Excerpted words written by Lolita Mang for Vogue France.
