(b. 1984; Accra, Ghana; lives and works in Ghana) is innovative in his approach to the presentation of Black bodies; reframing and realigning their dispositions despite the larger global context surrounding Black culture. Acclaimed for his enticing finger-painted portraits, Boafo’s work has become landmarked in the pictorial subset of art history.
Through striking, often monotone and direct portraits, Boafo engages in an intimate closeness with his subjects. The figures gaze with unwavering firmness as they look to the viewer with stern dispositions. Typically isolated on single color backgrounds, viewers have nowhere to look but at the subjects, leaving little room for misinterpretation. His tableaux vivants are placed at a high recognition, both physically regarding their size and spiritually in terms of their grandeur.
Boafo studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna (Austria) and in 2017 was awarded with the jury prize, Walter Koschatzky Art Prize. His work has been widely collected by private and public collections, most recently by the Wooyang Art Museum (South Korea), Denver Art Museum (Denver, Colorado), the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), the Leopold Museum (Vienna, Austria), Tate Modern (London, UK), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Los Angeles, California), and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, New York).
His work has been exhibited in institutions such as the Belvedere Museum (Vienna, Austria), Kunsthalle Vienna (Vienna, Austria), Seattle Art Museum (Seattle, WA), Museum of the African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA) and The Bass Museum (Miami, Florida), among others.
The artist’s forthcoming solo exhibition will open at our Paris space in October 2026.
