BIO

Rosemond Nyamewaa Van-Ess is a Ghanaian artist living and working in the United States. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Art from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in 2022 and is currently an MFA candidate (2027) and Graduate Teaching Assistant at
Wayne State University, where she teaches Intro to Ceramics in Detroit, Michigan. Working primarily in ceramics and mixed media, Rosemond explores themes of homemaking, womanhood, and resilience, drawing connections between domestic labor, material transformation, and the
invisible emotional work of women.
Her work has been featured in numerous exhibitions, including the Baron-Forness Library Reopening Student Show (2024) at PennWest Edinboro, the Clay Club Audit Show (2024) at Edinboro University, Memento Nos: Migration and Movement in America at the Homer and Dolly
Hand Art Center, Stetson University, the Michigan Ceramic Association Biennial and Competition (2024), Marking Place (2025) at Eastern Michigan University, and Africa to Detroit at Norwest Gallery, Michigan. Her voice and perspective have also been highlighted in Bold Journey, Canvas Rebel, and The Studio Porter magazines.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work recontextualizes the complexities of homemaking and women’s roles in socioeconomic development. Through sculpture and installation, I examine the invisible emotional, physical, and psychological labor that sustains families and communities. Using cast milk bottles and clay as my primary materials, I juxtapose the disposable and the enduring to question how society measures value, care, and strength.
I am interested in liberation from social invisibility and silence, the ways cultural expectations confine women to unrecognized roles of service. My work amplifies the presence of women whose everyday acts of care are often dismissed as routine rather than seen as gestures of resilience and creativity. These include mothers, homemakers, and community builders in both Ghana, where I grew up, and the United States, where I now live. Their quiet endurance inspires me to reimagine domestic labor not as passive duty, but as a form of artistry and empowerment.

The cast milk bottle functions as both material and metaphor. It holds nourishment yet becomes waste once emptied, mirroring how women’s labor, though essential, is often overlooked or forgotten. In Ghana, these commercial bottles are reused and repurposed, symbolizing adaptability and resourcefulness; in America, they evoke consumerism and disposability. Through this duality, I explore how material culture reflects broader systems of value, recognition, and neglect.
By reshaping these bottles, I transform consumer waste into vessels of resilience, reclaiming worth from what society deems expendable. Clay, conversely, connects to earth, home, and permanence, allowing me to build forms that embody both fragility and strength, qualities that mirror women’s lives. My use of coils and column-like structures references systems of support, architecture, and interconnectedness, evoking women as the unseen pillars that uphold communities. The tactile, repetitive process of coiling parallels domestic routines, slow, grounding, and continuous reveals the endurance within acts of care.

Through my practice, I aim to transform materials of disposability into symbols of empowerment, inviting viewers to reconsider women’s labor not as invisible maintenance but as the architecture that sustains society. My work serves as a reflection on the unseen economies of care, where resilience and creativity coexist. In doing so, I hope to expand the conversation around how we assign value to materials, to labor, and to the lives that hold our social worlds together.

See My Works

CV / Resume

EDUCATION

2024-2027 MSc. M.F.A In Ceramics. Wayne State University, Detroit, M
2022 BSC in Ceramics Technology. Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Kumasi-Ghana

GROUP EXHIBITION
2025 “Africa to Detroit” at the Norwest Gallery, Michigan
2024 “The 2024 Michigan Ceramics Association Biennial and competition”, MI
“Memento nos” Migration and movement in America by the Homer and Dolly
Hand Art Center, Stetson University, Deland Florida.
The Baron-Forness Library re-opening student show. Penn west, Edinboro, The clay club audit show 2024, Edinboro University
Marking place: A juried student exhibition, School of art and design, Eastern Michigan

AWARDS AND GRANTS
2025 Art Activity Award
Maricak Scholarship of the year 2025-2026
James Pearson Duffy Graduate Award, Department of Art and Art History, Wayne State University, MI
2023 Sfumato Art Gallery Last Artist open call winner.
James Pearson Duffy Graduate Award, Department of Art and Art History, Wayne State University, MI

BIBLIOGRAPHY
2024 The Bold Journey Magazine, March 8th, 2024 Link
Canvas Rebel Stories and Insights, June 25th, 2024 Link
The Studio Porter Magazines Stories Link

COMMITTEES & COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS
Present Graduate Teaching Assistant, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI
2023-2024 Graduate Studio Assistant, Pennsylvania Western University, Edinboro, PA
2022-2023 Deputy Secretary, Ghana National Fire Service (National Headquarters), HR97+WX2, Accra

LEADERSHIP EXPERIENCE
2022 Electoral Commission Chairperson, Ceramics Department, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana
2021 Materials Research Intern, Technology Consultancy Center (TCC), Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Ghana
2020 Student Representative Council and Publicity Member, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Kumasi-Ghana

See My Works