Yellow Hibiscus Gallery. What kind of name is that?

Yellow Hibiscus Gallery. What kind of name is that? Where did that name come from? What is a Hibiscus? And why Yellow Hibiscus?

Ideas are a dime a dozen. Some ideas however, are so persistent that you have no a choice but to execute them. Yellow Hibiscus Gallery is one such idea. The genesis of this journey is rooted in the lobby of a quaint little hotel called the African Regent Hotel, located in Accra, Ghana. I was on my first visit back to the land of my birth, the first such trip in over fifteen years, when all of a sudden inspiration struck me. While waiting, a virtue that I had to practice often during that trip, I saw huge canvasses of color and shades being carried into the hotel’s main office. Ever the curious chap I followed and found myself peering into the office of the hotel owner. Startled by the presence of a curious cat, he inquired about my presence in his office, and I about the works that were being stacked in the corner of his office.

Thankfully, he had some time to spare. He proceeded to educate me about the vibrant art scene in the capital city and the lack of local support, along with his own modest efforts to foster local appreciation and to shine some much needed light on the creative class in Ghana. At that point, the seed for an online gallery focused on contemporary Ghanaian art was planted in my subconscious. Upon my return to my home base in New York, I brushed the idea aside because I lacked the capacity, technical know how and patience to follow through. The idea thus lingered for a couple of years, biding time to re-emerge.  

In March 2013, the idea sprung forth again, this time with a vengeance and urgency that I could not ignore. All day and night, the idea would swarm my consciousness until I was fed up and decided to draft a business plan and to implement the plan before the end of 2014.   (This is where I thank those brave souls who humored me and listened to my many hours of incessant blabbering while I worked through the details and honed the idea. Thank you).

With the idea firmly in place, a business plan in hand and a new sense of purpose, I reached out to my network for help building a team. Once the team was in place, we refined the vision for Yellow Hibiscus. From the initial idea, to several rounds of brainstorming, we are now ready to share with you the fruits of our labor. Yellow Hibiscus has just begun to bloom, and we hope that you will join us in nurturing it to maturity.

Now that you’ve read all that, you may still be wondering – What is a Hibiscus? – According to Wikipedia, “[a] hibiscus is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family. It is . . . native to warm-temperate, subtropical and tropical regions throughout the world.” Why Yellow Hibiscus? - Because Yellow Hibiscus is an ode to love and the muses, but that story is for another day.