“Blue Pullover,” 2018. Part of a show at Roberts Gallery in Culver City.
The subject’s sweater is painted in long, distinct lines that are contrary to his face which is comprised of individual brush strokes. This technique provides the figure with boundless energy.
Image courtesy of: Los Angeles Times, photographed by: Robert Wedemeyer
It is safe to say that Amoako Boafo is a rising art superstar! The young artist from Ghana is known for using bright colors and texturized finger painting as he highlights Black Identity and the African diaspora. It wasn’t long ago that Boafo was in Accra trying to sell paintings for $100 apiece in order to support his mother and grandmother.
The artist lives and works in Vienna, Austria; he has established a long and international list of fans over the past couple of years. Recently, Boafo was able to gain exposure in the United States through gallery exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York and via major art fairs in both Miami and Chicago. It all began with “Black Diaspora,” his first U.S. solo show at Roberts Projects in Los Angeles.
“Boy with Flower Earring,” 2019. The painting belongs to Arthur Lewis, an icon on the Los Angeles art scene.
Image courtesy of: CNN Style, photographed by: Jeff McLane
When the exhibition was presented in 2019, Boafo poetically described the subjects he paints (courtesy of an article with Victoria L. Valentine for Culture Trip), “Most of the characters are people that share the same ideas as me. Others are also people that I find strength in—how they celebrate/live their blackness,” he said. “’I See Me’ explains the characters that I portray. It is one of the things that is very visible in my work, that I want to be able to tell my story myself. I want to be able validate myself.”
His story is inspirational…the son of a fisherman and a cook, he was quick to learn that he could skip his homework if he appeared to be writing in his notebook. (However often times, he was drawing superheroes rather than doing his homework.) When Boafo was nine, a flood destroyed the family’s belongings and soon thereafter, his father died. He started helping his mother care for an elderly man who asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up; immediately, Boafo said that he wanted to be an artist. The man paid for his first semester at Ghanatta College of Art and Design and Boafo worked as a pallbearer to pay for the remainder of the tuition.
“Tonica Hunter,” 2017. Oil on canvas.
Image courtesy of: Bomb Magazine
Following his graduation in 2008, Boafo met Sunanda Mesquita, an Austrian artist and curator who would become his wife. Mesquita started contacting gallery owners in Vienna and five years later, the pair moved to the elegant city. In addition to obvious influences, Boafo counts the Austrian artist Egon Schiele as his inspiration; he says Schiele’s paintings elicit a sense of freedom, confidence and wildness. Like Schiele, Boafo graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna; he explains Schiele’s specific influence on his art (courtesy of Cobo Social), “I just want my paintings to be as free as possible, and Schiele gave me that vibe- the strokes, characters, and composition.”
Five years ago, Boafo, without giving it much thought, dipped his fingers into brown paint and started experimenting. He had been challenged with how to “get skin tones right with fingers, but I thought it looked loose and fresh.” This “experimentation” was a huge success… the following year, Boafo entered one of these unique portraits into a works-on-paper competition, the Walter Koschatzky Art-Award, and won a jury prize. This new “painting style” elevated Boafo’s prestige on art-world tastemakers’ radars and into the global art circuit.
Mariane Ibrahim’s booth at Art Basel Miami, 2019.
Image courtesy of: Galerie Magazine
In 2019, one of the most searched-after invitations at Art Basel Miami was to a dinner at the Faena Hotel honoring Boafo. The headliner of the art world’s most magnetic week, the artist had an entire suite devoted to his large-sale paintings at Miami’s Rubell Museum and a sold-out booth at the fair. “Team Boafo” is an intense group: his dealer is Bennett Roberts who has a gallery in Los Angeles and who was the first dealer to give the artist a solo show in America. There is Mariana Ibrahim, the Chicago-based “champion of artists that illustrate African diaspora art.” Amir Shariat is his Vienna-based manager and Jeremy Larner is a private dealer who early on, bought a large grouping of Boafo’s work directly from the artist. Finally, Josh Baer has been instrumental in introducing Boafo to some of contemporary art’s most powerful and influential members.
Ibrahim’s inaugural booth at Miami Art Basel (2019) was a solo-exhibition presenting Boafo’s new works. The gallery sold out the entire collection (with featured works priced between $15,000 and 45,000) before the fair even started. Ibrahim told Galerie Magazine, “It’s been an incredible experience.”
Boafo wearing a shirt from the Dior collection. Jones spotted the glimmering ivy leaves in one of Boafo’s paintings during a studio visit.
About the interesting collaboration, Boafo says (courtesy of Vogue), “My experience collaborating on the Dior collection has been mind-blowing. But in many ways, the fashion and art worlds are similar. They convey genuine messages about being, and self-worth, much of which aligns with why I create—to elevate individuals and to define oneself.”
Image courtesy of: Vogue
Being the “It Guy” has many benefits; in 2020, the artist was asked to collaborate with Kim Jones of Dior Men. After an introduction facilitated by Baer, Jones traveled to visit Boafo’s studio in Accra. Jones spent his childhood traveling through Africa with his hydro-geologist father. He says (courtesy of an article wtih Ryan Waddoups for Surface Magazine), “I grew up in Africa. African art is something that’s always been important to me.”
Considering the continent to be his “second home,” the designer wanted to incorporate some of Boafo’s famous Black Diaspora portraits into the collection’s silhouettes. He continues, “Boafo’s work just spoke to me; I was immediately drawn to it. The intensity of his portraits, the power of movement, and the choice of colors in them—everything touches me in his work and the way he sees things. I could just see his work turning into things in front of my eyes.”
The collection, called “Portrait of an Artist,” is a beautiful combination of Boafo’s masculine sensibilities and Jones’ adept tailoring. The creative process was developed through trust and confidence. Jones concludes “In designing this collection, I wanted to share that passion and celebrate the power of his work to help it become even better known.”