Ato Ribeiro Ghanaian-American, b. 1989

Overview

Ato Ribeiro examines the interwoven narratives of his West African heritage and American identity through wood assemblage.

Ato Ribeiro transforms the visual traditions of West African textiles into intricate geometric wood assemblages that explore histories of cultural exchange, migration, and identity. Born in Philadelphia and raised between Accra and Atlanta, Ribeiro draws upon his transcontinental upbringing to examine the intersections of African and African American artistic traditions. His practice considers how cultural knowledge, histories, and systems of meaning are transmitted across generations and geographies, using abstraction as a means of connecting inherited traditions with contemporary experiences. Working with found and discarded wood, Ribeiro repurposes salvaged fragments into complex compositions that translate traditional patterns and symbolic forms into a contemporary sculptural language.

Using techniques of wood inlay, Ribeiro draws inspiration from the intricate patterns of Ghanaian Kente cloth, a traditional form of strip weaving in which narrow bands of fabric are woven and assembled into larger textiles. Historically associated with the Asante and Ewe peoples of Ghana, Kente incorporates geometric arrangements of lines, shapes, and colours that convey social, historical, and cultural meanings. Ribeiro also integrates Adinkra symbols, a visual system associated with the Akan peoples of Ghana that communicates philosophical concepts, proverbs, and values. His work further references African American quilting traditions, particularly their use of geometric patterns, repetition, and the assembly of individual fragments into larger compositions.

Geometry plays a central role in Ribeiro’s work, reflecting the mathematical principles of repetition, symmetry, proportion, and spatial organisation that underpin traditional weaving, architecture, and craft practices. Through the careful cutting, arrangement, and inlay of individual wooden fragments, he constructs compositions in which contrasting grains, colours, and textures form intricate patterns. The precision of these arrangements transforms discarded materials into highly ordered visual systems, connecting the material histories of the wood and the cultural traditions embedded in the compositions.

Biography

Image courtesy Gregory Miller.

Ato Ribeiro was born in Philadelphia, USA, and spent the formative years of his life in Accra, Ghana before relocating to Atlanta, Georgia. Ribeiro received his BA from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2012, and his MFA in Print Media from Cranbrook Academy of Art in in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 2017.

In 2026, his work is featured in several institutional exhibitions, including Hardwork 2026 at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; Collective Geometries at the Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, Georgia; Labyrinth/Laboratory: Selections from the Cranbrook Collection at Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; America Will Be! at the David C. Driskell Center, Maryland; and Georgia Wood Artists at the Marietta Cobb Museum of Art, Georgia. In 2026, Ribeiro was featured in the PBS series Craft in America. In 2025, his work was presented at the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, Texas, and Museum for Art in Wood, Philadelphia.

Ribeiro was a finalist for the ADAMA Seeds Award at the African Diaspora Art Museum of Atlanta and the Sovereign African Art Prize in 2026. In 2024, he received the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant and was a finalist for the Society 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art, awarded by the Gibbes Museum of Art. He received the Atlanta Artadia Award (2022) and the Mercedes-Benz Financial Services Emerging Artist Award (2017). Ribeiro has participated in numerous artist residencies and fellowships, including Fountainhead Residency, Miami; the MOCA GA Working Artist Project Fellowship (2022–2023); MASS MoCA Residency (2021); Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2017); Santa Fe Art Institute (2017); the Ox-Bow LeRoy Neiman Foundation Fellowship, Saugatuck (2017); Vermont Studio Center, Johnson; and Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Maine.

His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Arizona State University Art Museum; Phoenix Art Museum; Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia (MOCA GA); Cranbrook Art Museum; Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library; Mercedes-Benz USA Headquarters; TD Art Collection; and the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, among others. Ribeiro lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia.

Works