Beyond the Streets presents VHS dreams: the art of Ghana’s mobile cinema — an immersive celebration of Ghana’s hand-painted movie poster tradition and the remarkable artists who have kept this form alive for over three decades. This exhibition showcases one of the largest collections of original, hand-painted Ghanaian movie posters ever shown in a single space—each one a riot of color, imagination and cinematic energy. These works, often painted on recycled flour sacks, are bold, unfiltered reinterpretations of global cinema, rendered with stunning individuality by master painters from Accra and beyond. They evoke connections to traditions of sign painting, agitprop art and street-based visual culture of the region.

Born from necessity and fueled by creativity, the Ghanaian movie poster tradition emerged in the 1980s alongside the rise of the country’s mobile cinema culture. Armed with a television, a VCR, and a gas-powered generator, mobile video club operators would bring action, horror, kung fu and West African films to villages without electricity—transforming public spaces into impromptu screening rooms. Without access to offset printing technologies for advertising, they turned to local artists to create hand-painted posters to promote each showing. These artists—many of whom are still working today—were tasked with interpreting often unfamiliar films through instinct, flair and the occasional exaggeration. This resulted in wildly inventive visuals that could feature oversized guns, surreal monsters, or extra limbs where there were none.

The posters in this exhibition are not reproductions—they are original, one-of-a-kind paintings made over the past 30 years, created by a multigenerational group of Ghanaian artists including Mark Anthony, Leonardo, Bright Obeng, Heavy J, H.K. Matthias, Farkira, Magasco, C.A. Wisely, Mr. Nana Agyq, Nii Bi Ashitey, Salvation, Stoger and more. Each piece reflects not only the genre and subject of the films they represent, but also the individual personality and imagination of the artist. These posters blur the line between advertising and fine art, and serve as cultural documents of both Ghana’s creative economy and the global impact of cinema. The posters are both idiosyncratic and compelling—paintings that operated simultaneously as advertisement, translation, parody and imaginative embellishment. In many ways, these posters embody what art historian Olu Oguibe has called a “postcolonial visuality”—an aesthetic strategy shaped by improvisation, hybridity, and cultural adaptation. These artworks resist easy classification within Euro-American art historical taxonomies, instead speaking to local systems of patronage, community engagement, and oral storytelling traditions that have long sustained West African visual practice.

All of the works in VHS dreams are available for purchase, offering collectors a rare opportunity to take home a piece of this extraordinary exhibition. Each poster is a one-of-a-kind hand-painted artwork. Each artwork purchased and taken home by a collector opens space for a new piece to enter the exhibition, transforming the show into a dynamic, ever-changing presentation that reflects the expansive creative output of the artists. Visitors are encouraged not only to experience the cultural significance of these pieces, but also to support the artists and help preserve the legacy of Ghana’s mobile cinema tradition.

Deadly Prey Gallery was founded in 2012 by Robert Kofi Ghartey in Accra, Ghana, and Brian Chankin in Chicago, USA. The gallery is dedicated to preserving and promoting Ghana’s vibrant tradition of hand-painted movie posters—artworks originally created to advertise mobile cinema screenings in the 1980s and ’90s. Robert’s journey began as a child in Ghana, working as a “poster boy” to earn free movie admission. Brian’s passion for obscure cinema led him to collect these posters and eventually meet Robert. Their partnership now supports a collective of Ghanaian artists by commissioning new works and producing prints, books, and merchandise, with profits going directly to the artists. Deadly Prey Gallery shines a light on the artists’ stories, ensuring their creative legacy is seen, celebrated, and sustained around the world.

This exhibition is more than a look back—it’s a living, evolving tribute to a powerful visual language shaped by community, resourcefulness, and unfiltered imagination. VHS dreams invites you to wander through a world where paint and fantasy collide, where legends live not only on the screen, but on the canvas.

In a contemporary moment where digital reproduction dominates, VHS dreams reasserts the tactile, material presence of paint, canvas, and gesture. It is a celebration of artistic invention born from necessity, of global cinema refracted through local eyes, and of an enduring, defiant visual language that refuses to fade into history.

VHS dreams: the art of Ghana’s mobile cinema opens July 11, 2025 and remains on view at Beyond the Streets through August 23, 2025.