Thomas Amoako Boafo, known as Amoako Boafo (born 10 May 1984), is a Ghanaian

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

and visual artist.

Early life and education

Boafo was born and raised in Osu, in the

Greater Accra Region The Greater Accra Region has the smallest area of Ghana's Regions of Ghana, 16 administrative regions, occupying a total land surface of 3,245 square kilometres. This is 1.4 per cent of the total land area of Ghana. It is the List of Ghanaian re ...

of Ghana. He attended the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in

Accra Accra (; or ''Gaga''; ; Ewe: Gɛ; ) is the capital and largest city of Ghana, located on the southern coast at the Gulf of Guinea, which is part of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2021 census, the Accra Metropolitan District, , had a population of ...

, and later continued his education at the

Academy of Fine Arts Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna () is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1688 as a private academy, it is now a public university. The academy is also known for twice rejecting admission to a young Adolf Hitler in 1907 and 1908. ...

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

Career

Boafo's portraits focus on posture, clothing, and the stroke of skin which he accentuates with the finger painting technique. In 2019, Boafo participated in a residency at the new

Rubell Museum The Rubell Museum, formerly the Rubell Family Collection, is a private Contemporary art, contemporary art museum with locations in the Allapattah neighborhood of Miami, Miami, Florida, and the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood of Washington, D.C ...

in Miami, Florida, and in 2020 collaborated with

Dior Christian Dior SE (), commonly known as Dior, is a French Multinational corporation, multinational luxury goods company that is controlled and chaired by French businessman Bernard Arnault, who also heads LVMH. , Dior controlled around 42% of ...

for their Spring/Summer 2021 Men Collection. His work ''Suborbital Tryptych'', consisting of three portraits of himself, his mother, and a friend's mother, was printed on the top of the crew capsule of a

New Shepard New Shepard is a Reusable launch vehicle, fully reusable Sub-orbital spaceflight, sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, who became the List of space travelers by nationali ...

rocket that performed an unmanned suborbital launch on August 26, 2021, reaching outer space with an apogee of 106 km. On 26 May 2022, his debut U.S. exhibit, ''Soul of Black Folks'', opened at Contemporary Art Museum

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Collections

Boafo's work is in private and public collections, most recently in the Blenheim Art Foundation,

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

Hirshhorn Museum The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

, Marieluise Hessel Collection, the Aishti Foundation, the CCS Bard College Hessel Museum of Art, the Pizzuti Collection of Columbus Museum of Art,

Colección Solo Espacio Solo – and its accompanying Colección Solo – is a private contemporary art museum in Madrid, founded by Spanish industrialist Ana Gervás and entertainment executive David Cantolla in 2013 and expanded into its current form in 201 ...

and the Albertina Museum in Vienna.

Exhibitions

Group exhibitions: * 2022. Certeza. Espacio SOLO -

Colección SOLO Espacio Solo – and its accompanying Colección Solo – is a private contemporary art museum in Madrid, founded by Spanish industrialist Ana Gervás and entertainment executive David Cantolla in 2013 and expanded into its current form in 201 ...

(Madrid, Spain). On show ''Sitting on the Sun'' (2019). Solo exhibitions: * 2024. ''Proper Love,'' Belvedere Museum, (Vienna, Austria). * 2025. ''I Do Not Come to You by Chance,'' Gagosian Gallery (London, UK).

Recognition

* 2017 – Jury prize, Walter Koschatzky Art Prize * 2019 – STRABAG Art award International

Art market

Boafo is represented by Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Chicago and

Roberts Projects Roberts Projects is a contemporary art gallery located in Los Angeles. History Roberts Projects was founded in 1999 as Roberts & Tilton by partners Bennett Roberts, Julie Roberts and Jack Tilton in Los Angeles. Following the death of Jack Til ...

in Los Angeles. In 2021, his ''Hands Up'' (2018) sold for HKD 26.7 million ($3.4 million) at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

in Hong Kong.Angelica Villa (December 2, 2021)
Records for Amoako Boafo, Avery Singer, Bernard Buffet Set in Christie’s $192 M. Hong Kong Evening Sale
''

ARTnews ''ARTnews'' is an American art magazine, based in New York City. It covers visual arts from ancient to contemporary times. It is the oldest and most widely distributed art magazine in the world. ''ARTnews'' has a readership of 180,000 in 124 co ...

''.

References

Living people 1984 births Ghanaian male painters 21st-century Ghanaian painters 21st-century male artists People from Greater Accra Region {{Portal bar, Biography, Africa, Visual arts

External links

Amoako Boafo
at Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, CA