Kofi Kayiga
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Kofi Kayiga (born December 1943),
JamaicaArts.com.
formerly known as Ricardo Wilkins, is a
Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...
n-born artist and educator, who migrated to the US, after periods spent in the UK and
Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
. He has exhibited widely internationally and since the 1960s has taught fine art at various institutions, becoming a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt)."Kofi Kayiga"
PetrineArcher.com.
"About Kofi Kayiga" (CV)
Maria Pestana Art Gallery Online.


Biography

Born in
Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long spit (landform), sand spit which connects the town of Por ...
, to Jamaican and Cuban parents, he studied at the Jamaica School of Art, and won a government scholarship that enabled him to go to
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
to pursue a master's degree in Fine Art at the
Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...
(1971). He was a lecturer at
Makerere University Makerere University (; Mak) is Uganda's largest and oldest institution of higher learning, first established as a technical school in 1922, and the oldest currently active university in East Africa. It became an independent national university in ...
in Kampala, Uganda, in the early 1970s, and from 1973 to 1981 he was head of the painting department at the Jamaica School of Art. He was artist-in-residence at the
College of Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a Private college, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwi ...
, Worcester, MA (1980–1983), and went on to become a professor at Massachusetts College of Art,
Boston, MA Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. His work has been characterised as influenced by
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
and by Jamaican folklore and religious themes. In the words of the art historian Petrine Archer-Straw, "Kayiga’s work is concerned with origins, 'primitive'in the sense of exploring the essence of human consciousness and its links with spirituality. To access this deeper understanding of the self, Kofi strips himself of his formal training and approaches his subject matter intuitively and even mystically, recovering images from deepest memory and the subconscious. His is a pantheistic world that reveals the mystery of the universe in every aspect of daily life. Inanimate objects and situations become animate and alive with animal forms, insects and cosmic creatures that remind us that the spirit world is all around us. Unlike the many artists creating during this era who were inspired by the repatriation message of Garvey and
Rastafari Rastafari is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic religion that developed in Jamaica during the 1930s. It is classified as both a new religious movement and a social movement by Religious studies, scholars of religion. There is no central authori ...
, Kayiga's world is not one of idealism mediated through the diaspora experience. Instead, he is the only artist who channeled a first-hand experience of Africa into his work, resulting in an immediacy and directness that consists of bold strokes, vibrant colour fields and symbolic language." In 2015, Kayiga's work features exhibition '' No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990'' at the
Guildhall Art Gallery The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. The museum is located in the Moorgate area of the City of London. It is a stone building in a semi-Gothic style intended to be sympathetic to the historic Guil ...
,
City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
.FHALMA (Friends of the Huntley Archives at
London Metropolitan Archives The London Archives (previously known as the Greater London Record Office 1965–1997, and London Metropolitan Archives 1997–2024) is the principal local government archive repository for the Greater London area, including the City of London ...

"The Artists' Profiles"
, Huntleys Online.


Selected exhibitions

;Solo *2013, ''Kofi Kayiga at 70'', Multitudes Gallery, Miami, FL, USA. *2005, ''Kayiga: SpiritHue'', Bunker Hill Community College Art Gallery, Boston, MA, USA. *2000, Riverside Gallery, St Ann, Trinidad. *1998, ''Of Spirit and Technology — 30-Year Retrospective, Kingdom Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA. *1998, ''Mystical Images'', Lafayette College, Black Culture Center, USA. *1996, Gateway 4, Newark, New Jersey, USA. *1994, Mutual Life Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica. *1990–91, Museum of African American Life and Culture,
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
, USA. *1983, ''Paintings and Drawings'', Brownagree Gallery, Commonwealth Institute, London, UK. *1981, ''Major Works'', Museum of the National Centre of Afro American Artists, Boston, MA, USA. *1979, ''Drawings'', Mercer Arts Salon New York, NY, USA. *1975, Nine-Year Retrospective, Olympia International Art Centre, Kingston, Jamaica. *1972, Paintings, West Indian Students' Centre, London, UK. *1971, Paintings and Drawings, Nomo Gallery, Kampala, Uganda. *1970, Paintings, Kingston Parish Library, Kingston, Jamaica. *1967, Paintings, Contemporary Art Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica. ; Group *2015, '' No Colour Bar: Black British Art in Action 1960–1990'',
Guildhall Art Gallery The Guildhall Art Gallery houses the art collection of the City of London, England. The museum is located in the Moorgate area of the City of London. It is a stone building in a semi-Gothic style intended to be sympathetic to the historic Guil ...
,
City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...
, UK. *2005, ''Back to Black'', Whitechapel Gallery and touring, UK. *1998–99, Four Group Shows, Kingdom Fine Arts, Boston, MA, USA. *1998, ''Black as Colour: Art, Cinema, and the Racial Imaginary'', National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston. *1997, Mutual Life Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica. *1992, Cecil Cooper, Kofi Kayiga, Bryan McFarlane, Parish Gallery, Washington, D.C., USA. *1991, Travelling Exhibit, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA, USA. *1990, ''Forty Years: Edna Manley School for the Visual Arts'', National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston. *1989–90, ''Black Art Ancestral Legacy'', Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas, USA. *1988, ''Works on Paper'', Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston, MA, USA. *1986, Anniversary Group Exhibit, Contemporary Art Centre, Kingston Jamaica. *1983, Museum of the National Centre of Afro American Artists, Boston, MA, USA. *1978, ''Eleven Jamaican Painters'',
Caracas, Venezuela Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...
. *1972–92, ''Annual National Exhibition'', National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston.


References


External links


"Kofi Kayiga"
Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
"Kayiga, Kofi (né: Ricardo Wilkins). (b. Jamaica, West Indies, 1943; active Boston, MA, 2013): Bibliography and Exhibitions"
AAVAD.com. {{DEFAULTSORT:Kayiga, Kofi Living people 1943 births Jamaican artists Massachusetts College of Art and Design faculty Alumni of the Royal College of Art Artists from Kingston, Jamaica