“I have always been interested in facial expressions… That’s one reason I like portraits so much. And then there is a certain gap: When you go to a museum or a big gallery all you see are white figures. You don’t see the kind of faces I paint there. I want to do my own small bit to close that gap… that is my main goal: To paint a different kind of portrait”
Executed in 2017, Amoako Boafo’s monumental painting The Hug is exemplary of the artist's instantly recongisable technique; the painting implements thick and gestural strokes with the isolated pair standing out against a bright monochromatic orange backdrop. In the present work, the artist uses his fingers to paint the subjects; a distinctive technique of mark-making that produces a heavy yet energetic surface. Boafo’s treatment of the texture of skin is singular; the couples’ complexion is rendered in rich colours and deep contours which seem to almost diffuse into the background. Boafo’s technique belies his characters with fluidity and sense of movement, making them vibrate with energy, so that despite their static pose, they seem ever-changing.
Boafo presents the viewer with subjects who are caught in a moment of pure joy. Both figures smile out from the canvas with self-assured ease: “I have always been interested in facial expressions… That’s one reason I like portraits so much. And then there is a certain gap: When you go to a museum or a big gallery all you see are white figures. You don’t see the kind of faces I paint there. I want to do my own small bit to close that gap… that is my main goal: To paint a different kind of portrait” (Amoako Boafo cited in: Gabriel Roland, ‘In the Studio: Amoako Boafo’, Collector’s Agenda, 2019, online).
His elegant arrangement of composition, colour and technique lend his sitters a revitalised, modern energy while recognising the classical traditions of portraiture and expressionism. "I use painting as an instrument, both literally and to navigate the human experience… The hands and faces of the figures in the works have been finger-painted, [which] allow[s] me to create freely and to achieve an expressive skin tone, formed by blue, red and brown tones… I love that this seemingly simple motion can generate such intense energy and unveil these sculptural figures by the pattern the form of the skin reflects … The lack of control I have with using my fingers is organic, and that shows through in the abstract forms that create the beautiful faces of my subjects” (Amoako Boafo cited in: Pei-Ru Keh, ‘Amoako Boafo’s gestural portraits exude strength in times of crisis’, Wallpaper, 17 September 2020, online).
"I use painting as an instrument, both literally and to navigate the human experience… The hands and faces of the figures in the works have been finger-painted, [which] allow[s] me to create freely and to achieve an expressive skin tone, formed by blue, red and brown tones…”
Amoako Boafo, born in Accra, Ghana in 1984, is regarded as a distinguished voice in the exploration of race, identity and masculinity in portraiture painting. Boafo earned a diploma from the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in 2007 and received his MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künst Wien) in 2019. Harking back to the Viennese traditions established by the likes of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Boafo synthesises the black perspective while negotiating his own experience of diaspora and the complexities of identity and belonging. Boafo is amongst an important group of young artists dealing with issues of race in the 21st century, situated alongside Kerry James Marshall, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Toyin Ojih Odutola, Henry Taylor and Kehind Wiley. Particularly in the current political, Boafo’s works address the lack of diversity across the canon and challenges the viewer to question not only their own viewing habits but also the narratives of Western art history.