Amoako Boafo

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Amoako Boafo (born 1984 in Accra , Ghana ) is a Ghanaian painter who lives and works in Vienna .

life and work

Boafo portrays black people. From 2004 to 2007 he studied at the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Accra. He came to Austria in 2013 and studied from 2014 to 2019 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna with Ashley Hans Scheirl and Kirsi Mikkola . He was one of the most sought-after artists at Art Basel Miami Beach in 2019 . The ORF wrote of a “lightning-fast rise of the newcomer” and attributes this to the fact that - in the age of diversity - black artists are currently particularly in demand. Although calls for a broader art historical canon had existed since the 1960s, leading institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York have now declared the monopoly of the old white artist to be over. The US-American artist Kerry James Marshall stated that African-American artists had taken refuge in abstraction for far too long "so as not to be reduced to their skin color." The black body is a flaw in art history. The answer to this is the current boom in portraits and figurative painting.

The collector couple Mera and Don Rubell have acquired a number of his works. Purchases also from the Albertina Graphic Collection , the Hessel Museum of Art and the artist Kehinde Wiley .

In 2020 designer Kim Jones used works by Boafo in the summer collection for Dior Men .

Boafo is represented by the gallery owner Mariane Ibrahim, Chicago .

style

The expressiveness of his portraits is reminiscent of Egon Schiele . The titles are simple and descriptive: Hudson in a Baby Blue Suit , Looking through two fingers or “Self in a Gucci Jacket”.

"He paints his figurative portraits in front of colored surfaces and abstract interiors with oil paint, the faces and hands are painted with fingers, the other parts of the picture with an expressive brushstroke." Others represent a chronicle of the 2010s, Hudson with the dog , Mr Palm Nii Okai or Mustafa red bird shirt , all from the "Black Diaspora" series. It shows people he admires, acquaintances and friends from Vienna, Berlin and Ghana, as well as black icons such as Tupac Shakur or Jean-Michel Basquiat . The painter confidently plays with the topoi of the black liberation movement, for example in the painting In Yellow with Malcolm , meaning Malcolm X , whose biography he is holding in a half-concealed embrace. The picture Hands up doesn’t seem like a criticism of oppression, but like a fashion statement. He breaks the stereotypes of masculinity that shaped his youth. Joy of life is a continuous motif and even a pose of horror, Justine Mendy , is colorful, with a sky-blue background and a yellow-red dress of cheerful patterns.

Quote

"The primary idea of ​​my practice is representation, documenting, celebrating and showing new ways to approach blackness."

- Amoako Boafo : Statement, both on his website and on that of his gallery owner

Exhibitions

  • 2019 Robert Projects, Culver City
  • 2019 Luce Galleria, Turin
  • 2019 Rotor - Center for Contemporary Art, Graz (Guerilla of Enlightment)
  • 2019 Strabag Art Forum Vienna
  • 2019 Mietinnen Collection, Salon Dahlmann, Berlin

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b ORF (Vienna): "Black Power" on the art market , December 28, 2019
  2. ↑ ARTIST STATEMENT , accessed April 14, 2020
  3. ^ Tim Blanks: Why Dior's Kim Jones Collaborated with Artist Amoako Boafo. In: The Business of Fashion. July 13, 2020, accessed July 17, 2020 .
  4. ↑ a b Nordic Embassies: Amoako Boafo: "The Gaze, an" "Exchange" , accessed on December 29, 2019
  5. ↑ Amoako Boafo - The Gaze, an Exchange: Celebrating Blackness , accessed April 15, 2020
  6. ↑ Amoako Boafo , accessed April 14, 2020
  7. ↑ Amoako Boafo's Mesmerizing Portraiture Celebrates Blackness , accessed April 14, 2020
  8. ↑ 3 sat : Amoako Boafo: "Bold" , October 25, 2019, with a portrait of the artist in front of his works
  9. ↑ Strabag Artaward for Amoako Boafo , accessed on April 14, 2020
personal data
SURNAME Boafo, amoako
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ghanaian painter
DATE OF BIRTH 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Accra , Ghana