Tag / Kehinde Wiley

by GJ.Larrow

Amoako Boafo

Amoako Boafo. The Lemon Bathing Suit, 2019. Oil on Unstretched Canvas; 81×76 inches. Photo by Phillips London.

            Thomas “Amoako” Boafo born on May 10th, 1984 in Ghana is an up and coming painter in the art world, thought to be one of the Most Influential Artists of 2020.[1] He grew up in Osu in the Greater Acra Region of Ghanna, losing his father at a young age, living with his financially struggling single mother. While he had dreams of being an artist, he thought it simply wasn’t possible, “It’s something that I wanted to do from the beginning, but in Ghana, we don’t have the arts infrastructure. You have to find those things yourself.”[2] Luckily for Boafo, his mothers employer must have seen talent in the young mans work, footing his tuition and allowing him to go to the Accra’s Ghanatta College of Art, graduating in 2008 with the Best Portrait Painter of the Year award. In 2014 he moved to Vienna with his soon to be wife Sunada Mesquita, and enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts for his MFA.

            He struggled when he first moved to Vienna to make it as an artist, painting portraits of those in the city’s cultural area until he learned to ditch his brushes and work with his fingers, creating extremely interesting and textured art that won him his next award in 2017, the Walter Koschatzky Art Award for an Artist Under 25. His artwork is known for its bold colors and patterns, challenging the perceptions of black subjectivity, diversity, and complexity.[3] Other than the figures in the paintings, the colors in the paintings are almost completely monochromatic, mixing solid paint and complex patterns in a way that makes the skin and poses pop.

            His art finally began to gain further notoriety in 2018 when Kehinde Wiley, an artist known for his presidential portrait of Barack Obama, reached out to purchase one of his works, and subsequently notified his own galleries to his find. While his gallery in Los Angeles had never seen one of Boafo’s pieces before, they offered him a spot when a larger show fell through not even weeks later. The Artists pieces were listed at $10,000 dollars each, and the show was sold out by the end of the second day.

            His work quickly grew and grew in popularity, His booth at the Mariane Ibrahim Gallery at Art Basel in Miami Beach back in 2019 similarly sold out. In 2020 his performance only grew, At Phillips in London his painting The Lemon Bathing Suit (2019) a painting featuring an older black woman, resting on a white water float next to the side of a pool in a bathing suit adorned with lemons, sold for the equivalent of $875,000, which was more than thirteen times its original estimate. His work has been acquired by multiple institutions as well, and is not featured in the Guggenheim, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Vienna’s Albertina Museum.[4]

            In this year he collaborated with Dior designer Kim Jones for his 2021 collection, and opened a show called “I Stand By Me” at Mariane Ibrahim’s Chicago gallery. The show, being his first solo exhibition, focuses on reflection during a time of crisis, using techniques that maximize both expression and minimalism, celebrating subjects bound to the world around them, sourcing European wallpapers to explore the possibilities of photo transfers.[5]

            While the artist is just getting started its clear that his art is going to only keep going, exploring even more possibilities with his exploration of color and texture.

[1] Artsy Editors, “The Most Influential Artists of 2020”, Artsy.com, December 7th, 2021, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-influential-artists-2020

[2] Nate Freedman, “The Swift, Cruel, Incredible Rise of Amoako Boafo: How Feverish Selling and Infighting Built the Buzziest Artist of 2020”, Artnet, Artnet Worldwide Corporation, September 28th, 2020, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/amoako-boafo-1910883

[3] RobertsProjectsLA, “Amoako Boafo” Roberts Projects, Art Dealers Association of America, accessed December 12th ,2020, https://www.robertsprojectsla.com/artists/amoako-boafo

[4] Arsty, The Most Influential Artists of 2020

[5] Miriane Ibrahim, “Amoako Boafo – I Stand By Me”, Mariane Ibrahim, 2020, https://marianeibrahim.com/exhibitions/29-amoako-boafo-i-stand-by-me/overview/

Sources

Amoako Boafo – I Stand By Me. (2020). Retrieved from Mariane Ibrahim: https://marianeibrahim.com/exhibitions/29-amoako-boafo-i-stand-by-me/overview/

Amoako Boafo. (2021, December 12). Retrieved from Roberts Projects: https://www.robertsprojectsla.com/artists/amoako-boafo

Freeman, N. (2020, September 28). The Swift, Cruel, Incredible Rise of Amoako Boafo: How Feverish Selling and Infighting Built the Buzziest Artist of 2020. Retrieved from Artnet: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/amoako-boafo-1910883

The Most Influential Artists of 2020. (2020, December 7). Retrieved from Artsy: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-influential-artists-2020

by karlingoff

Exhibition Review on Britain in the World: A Display of the Collections

Kehinde Wiley, Portrait of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Jacob Morland of Capplethwaite 2017
Oil on canvas 120 5/16 × 93 5/16 in. (305.6 × 237 cm)
Yale University Art Gallery and Yale Center for British Art, Purchased with a gift from Mary and Sean Kelly in honor of Courtney J. Martin and with the Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund and Friends of British Art Fund

Britain in the World: A Display of the Collections is an exhibition featured at the Yale Center for British art in New Haven, Connecticut. “This installation reveals how frequently the story of art in Britain focuses on a narrative of international exchange. This arrangement addresses the impact of immigration and travel on British art and culture across the centuries, and the role that the arts have played in propagating Britain’s imperial vision—exploring the ways in which the perception of the British Empire influenced how Britain’s saw themselves and others.” The overall them is very well reflected among each piece of art displayed in this collection. We see many different depictions as well as many different time periods displayed throughout this exhibition giving us a wider look into the theme of British culture and the travels they faced.
When walking into the museum, this is the first exhibition you walk through, as you walk in you see billboard size artwork displayed up the wall with a larger than life feeling. It is a truly beautiful first sight and really a stupendous way to start an exhibit. However, the exhibition is split between two floors, and we have the large circular shaped grand room, but the rest of the floor is of a completely different exhibition giving a very unsettling and disconnected feeling. The rest of the Britain in the World Exhibition is up two floors higher, leaving us very disconnected overall. The fourth floor is very well lit with white walls the really contrast the artwork well; most of them have gold frames which helps the balance. One eye-catching feature is noticeable while on the top floor, you have an opening where you can look out to the center of the building and if you look down you see the rest of the exhibition two floors down. It is a very interesting lookout point that the viewer can use, but even with the two-floor layout I still find the space that is set in chronological order, to be arranged in very pleasing way.
A few pieces of art that stuck out to me and made an impression on the overall theme of British culture included, a portrait of the artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye by Kehinde Wiley and Theodor von Holst’s The Wish, 1840. These two painting are a part of the British in the World Exhibition and are both feature portraits of women but in a very different way. I think these two represent strong women, one dated back to the mid-nineteenth century and one in today’s time of the twenty-first century. Wiley’s painting is bold and vibrant, representing another artist in a strong way as a Scottish bunny hunter. However, Holst paints a darker vibe portrait of a women that appears to be a psychic, hence the title the wish. I found myself drawn to both pieces, overall, there is many unique and different styled pieces in the exhibition that might speak to you.
In conclusion, I would have to rate British in the World Exhibition a four out of five. While the artwork was incredible filling with many different forms and style that touch on all art created by the British and their culture throughout their journeys The setup of the exhibition really leaves the chronological set up disjointed and confusing. It seems like two different exhibitions because of the layout instead of one big cohesive exhibition. I feel as if it would’ve been better to keep the exhibition on just one floor so we could fully divulge in the art instead of starting the exhibition, going into another that is completely different and then going back.

Sources
“Britain in the World: A Display of the Collections.” Yale Center for British Art. Accessed October 3, 2021. https://britishart.yale.edu/exhibitions-programs/britain-world-display-collections.
“YCBA Collections Search.” On. Accessed October 6, 2021. https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/?f%5Bdetailed_onview_ss%5D%5B%5D=On%2Bview.
“Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic.” Brooklyn Museum: Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic. Accessed October 6, 2021. https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/kehinde_wiley_new_republic/.