Amoako Boafo work on view for a limited time

The Saint Louis Art Museum is highlighting Amoako Boafo’s artwork White & Three Shades of Yellow, on view for a limited time from a local private collection, in the Gary C. Werths and Richard Frimel Gallery 248.

Painted in warm shades of yellow, Boafo’s sun-kissed portrait illuminates the modern and contemporary gallery. The bold color consists of smooth brush strokes that echo the sweeping gesture of the figure’s skin. To give textural contrast to the solid hues, Boafo fingerpaints the skin using rich browns, blues, and reds to bring an energy and liveliness to the figure. His methodology establishes an intimate connection between the artist and the person depicted. His technique displays his direct relationship with the materiality of the paint and the surface of the work as the skin reveals areas of the canvas underneath, creating a sense of luminosity and dimensionality.

Born in 1984, Amoako Boafo is a contemporary Ghanaian artist. His early interests in the arts were impacted by a lack of resources to support and foster his practice. His education at the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Accra shaped his painting skills. With a scholarship to attend the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Boafo began developing his visual language by painting portraits of Black people he met in the city or via social media.

While pursuing his education in central Europe, he began fingerpainting, a technique that is iconic to his stylistic approach. Boafo applies his signature style to expanding the narrative and combatting stereotypical representations of African art. He depicts Black figures in moments of play, leisure, and fashion and celebrates Blackness through his expressive and creative process.

Various artists, styles, and movements influence Boafo’s contemporary practice. The captivating facial expressions, gestural markmaking, and image-transferred patterns explored in his other bodies of work are reminiscent of Austrian Expressionist painters Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) and Egon Schiele (1890–1918). Written in uppercase letters and encased in a rectangle, Boafo’s signature references Schiele’s style of leaving his mark on his work. Boafo’s signature subverts artistic conventions by boldly embedding his name in the center of the figure’s clothes, and its subtle hue enriches the viewing experience with a moment of discovery. His monochrome backgrounds also connect to Fauvist color theories and Abstract Expressionist beliefs in color’s ability to evoke emotions.

His portraits contribute to the history of Black diasporic portraiture by artists such as Elizabeth Catlett, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas. Boafo is represented by Roberts Projects in Los Angeles and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Chicago. He has featured art in several solo and group exhibitions, including his 2022 debut: Soul of Black Folks at the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco. He was the artist-in-residence at the Rubell Museum in Miami in 2019, and the artist has also collaborated with artistic director of Dior Homme, Kim Jones, to design a men’s collection called “Portrait of an Artist” for their spring/summer 2021 collection.

In White & Three Shades of Yellow, the figure exudes a confidence that is communicated through its larger-than-life scale and its dynamic, three-quarter pose. The figure’s gaze leads to the neighboring portrait titled Irawo II by Wole Lagunju, a contemporary Nigerian artist whose work was purchased by the Museum at EXPO Chicago Art Fair in April 2023, with funds from the Northern Trust Purchase Prize. With artworks by Glenn Ligon, Robert Colescott, and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, the gallery explores contemporary works investigating themes of identity, representation, and language, creating a robust conversation between the works. Explore these artworks and experience Amoako Boafo’s White & Three Shades of Yellow, on view for a limited time.