Amoako Boafo, 2022. Photographs by Fabrice Gousset
A leading artist!
Amoako Boafo is a Ghanaian artist. Based in Vienna, this rising star of contemporary painting has, in the space of six months, become a key figure on the art scene. In December 2020, he achieved a sale of over $1 million at Christie’s, the world’s leading auction house. He is now the second-highest-valued African artist, closely following his elder and compatriot El Anatsui.
A meteoric rise…
It was Chicago-based gallery owner Mariane Ibrahim who spotted Amoaka’s paintings on Instagram. She bought a piece from him and offered to represent him. His work was not immediately accepted, as it broke with the visual conventions of African-American artists. A year later, at the Art Basel Miami Beach fair – which attracts major art collectors – his solo exhibition was a huge success and his paintings sold like hot cakes, with prices hovering around $50,000.
An inspiration for Dior…
During the presentation of the Spring/Summer 2021 collections, the luxury house caused a sensation by collaborating with the artist Amoako Boafo. Its creative director, Kim Jones, spent many years in Africa, where his father was conducting research into groundwater in Ethiopia, Kenya, Botswana and Ghana. For his collection, he drew inspiration from Amoako’s works. A shirt with an ivy print, a bright yellow belt, white safari shorts and a jumper featuring an embroidered man: the prints, colours, textures and even the looks of Boafo’s portraits were incorporated into Jones’s summer collection.
“Black identity” at the heart of his work…
The Ghanaian artist explores perceptions of Black identity. His best-known series, “Black Diaspora”, celebrates Black identity and depicts men and women from the diaspora or the continent. Like other artists, he seeks to break the conventions of Western art. He wants to restore dignity to Black people and make them more visible. He aims to revolutionise portraiture and, in his own words, to “decode the nuances of skin colour”. He paints stylised silhouettes on large, colourful canvases. His technique is unconventional. He uses brushes to apply the backgrounds and clothing, but paints the faces with his fingers, in shades of brown, ochre, cerulean blue, moss green and saffron yellow.
‘This allows me to achieve an intensity and energy that I wouldn’t get with a brush,’ he explained, before adding, with a touch of humour: ‘It’s ironic, isn’t it? You’re taught to use brushes, and instead I’m going back to the roots of painting as practised by early humans.” (source: Le Monde)
His models are members of his family or people he admires – people who have meant something to the African community.
His past is still very much with him…
He does not let his meteoric rise go to his head and remains wary of speculators’ appetites. Just 10 years ago, he was working for a funeral parlour in Accra and selling his paintings for $100. Painting was a way for him to escape poverty. Against his parents’ wishes, he trained as an artist in Accra before continuing his studies in Vienna in 2014. Today, Amoako Boafo hopes that his fame will benefit his African peers. In 2021, he opened an artists’ residence in Accra, designed by the star Ghanaian architect David Adjaye. He sees this space as a counterpoint to the art market, “which is nothing but noise”, a haven “where artists can work with people like themselves”. He adds: “I want the younger generation to have options other than leaving the continent to find professional opportunities; I want them to understand that they mustn’t lose faith and must always stay focused on their craft.”
A collaboration with Jeff Bezos...
In 2021, businessman Jeff Bezos launched a rocket from Texas carrying three works by Amoako Boafa. These were three close-up painted black silhouettes standing out against a white background. He thus became the first artist to send a work of art into space.