MEET
Eric Odartey Cruickshank
Eric Odartey Cruickshank, known artistically as Lines Being, is a self-taught contemporary artist from Accra, Ghana, born in 2000. Currently studying at Takoradi Technical University, Eric brings a unique and meditative voice to contemporary African art, using intricate linework to express deep cultural and emotional narratives.
His artistic vision is rooted in the preservation and amplification of Black identity through line-based storytelling. For Eric, each line — whether bold, broken, spiral, or faint — carries its own emotional resonance. These lines become visual metaphors, mirroring human complexity, mood, and ancestral memory. Inspired by the patterns found on indigenous baskets once used by his forebears, his work pays homage to Ghanaian craftsmanship while transforming it into a contemporary language of resistance and beauty.
Working across dry and wet media, Eric demonstrates versatility in contemporary techniques, constantly pushing the boundaries of figurative expression in African art. His compositions fuse abstraction and identity, resulting in artworks that are as intimate as they are political. In this way, his lines do more than fill space — they speak, vibrate, and carry memory.
Eric draws creative inspiration from Amoako Boafo, the internationally acclaimed Ghanaian artist based in Vienna. Like Boafo, he believes in the transformative potential of the Black figure in visual art and the role of the African artist in shaping global conversations about culture, identity, and representation.
As a rising voice in the African art scene, Eric Odartey Cruickshank continues to forge a bold and introspective path. His commitment to using line as a visual and cultural device makes his work distinctively resonant in the global dialogue on Blackness, heritage, and contemporary African creativity.
