Russell & Robert meet leading artist Amoako Boafo. Best known for his contemporary portrait paintings, Boafo’s portraits are enticing in their lucidity, accentuating the figures in each work, who are regularly isolated on single colour backgrounds, their gaze the focal point of each work. Combing brushwork with finger painting, his use of paint is thick and gestural, the contours of the body’s almost soften into abstraction. The most well known of his series, the Black Diaspora portraits serve as a means of celebration of his identity and Blackness.
We discuss his recent residency & exhibition in Miami with the Rubell Family Collection Museum, learning to paint and sculpt at Ghanatta College of Art, Accra before studying at Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna where he began to experiment and develop his own style, the influence of Maria Lassnig and Egon Schiele, the inspiration he drew from Kerry James Marshall's 2012 solo show at Secession, painting portraits of Thelma Golden (Director & Chief Curator of Studio Museum, Harlem), the ideas behind his 'Detoxing Masculinity' exhibition, and why he helped set up the progressive and inclusive Viennese art space WE DEY, dedicated to amplify the art and culture production of Queer/Trans*/Inter/Black People/People of Colour.
In 2017 Boafo was awarded with the jury prize, Walter Koschatzky Art Prize and the 2019 STRABAG Artaward International. Widely collected by private and public collectors and institutions, most recently by CCS Bard College Hessel Museum of Art, The Albertina Museum Vienna, and the Rubell Museum.
Follow @AmoakoBoafo on Instagram. Boafo is represented by @RobertsProjects, Los Angeles and @MarianeIbrahimGallery, Chicago where he has a solo show in June 2020. For images of all artworks discussed in this episode visit @TalkArt. We've just joined Twitter too @TalkArtPodcast. If you've enjoyed this episode PLEASE leave us your feedback and maybe 5 stars if we're worthy in the Apple Podcast store. We love to hear your feedback!!!! Thank you for listening to Talk Art, we will be back very soon.
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