Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks

Description

Published to accompany Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo's premier museum solo exhibition, copresented by the Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco and the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks is a timely exploration into the varying strategies that Boafo employs within his practice to capture the essence of the Black figure. Boafo creates paintings that center Black subjectivity, Black joy, and the Black gaze. Anchored by calculated brushwork combined with skillfully executed finger-painted strokes, his mark-making generates a rich visual dichotomy that yields both inward and outward-looking explorations of Boafo's subjects and the act of painting Black figures themselves. As much as Boafo's works are about the viewer, these beautifully constructed paintings are buoys. They aid him and many people of color in their continuing journeys toward asserting their presence and place in spaces that attempt to make them feel othered. Boafo's ability to capture the spirit of the individuals in his works and engage viewers has made him one of the most influential artistic voices of his generation. The work's power lies in its communication of a shared experience beyond the Black diaspora and anyone that feels they are on the margins of society.

Larry Ossei-Mensah is a Ghanaian-American independent curator and cultural critic who has documented contemporary art happenings for various publications, including NeueJournal, Uptown, and Whitewall Magazine. Recently, Ossei-Mensah was named the 2017 Critic-in-Residence at ART OMI in addition to serving as cochair on Russell Simmons's RUSH Artist Advisory Board and as a member of MoMA's Friends of Education. The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD), a Smithsonian affiliate, is a contemporary art museum that celebrates Black cultures, ignites challenging conversations, and inspires learning through the global lens of the African Diaspora. MoAD is uniquely positioned as one of the few museums in the world focused exclusively on African Diaspora culture and on presenting the rich cultural heritage of the people of Africa and of African descendant cultures all across the globe.