Steve Mekoudja, 2019

Amoako Boafo

Amoako Boafo is a painter, born in Accra, Ghana, based in Vienna, Austria.

Boafo’s portrait paintings are enticing in their lucidity, accentuating the figures in each work, who are regularly isolated on single color backgrounds, their gaze the focal point of each work. The brushstrokes are thick and gestural, the contours of the body’s almost soften into abstraction. The most well known of his series, the Black Diaspora portraits serve as a means of celebration of his identity and blackness.

Boafo emphasizes, “The primary idea of my practice is representation, documenting, celebrating and showing new ways to approach blackness.” 

Much of his work is inspired by his upbringing, commenting on how males are raised to be aggressive and masculine, which he challenges in his works. Although the artists underlying messages are quite intense, there is a certain softness to the works as a whole, the poses are serene and the skin luminous.

Boafo studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. In 2017 was awarded with the jury prize, Walter Koschatzky Art Prize. Widely collected by private and public collectors and institutions, most recently by CCS Bard College Hessel Museum of Art and The Albertina Museum Vienna. 

Mariane Ibrahim

Founded in January 2012 by Mariane Ibrahim-Lenhardt in Seattle and Known for her show-stopping booth installations at international art fairs, the gallery exhibits contemporary art, juxtaposing talented emerging artists and established contemporary artists.

The commitment to showcase new artists is reinforced by strong conservation programming that promotes the growth of emerging artists such as Ruby Onyinyechi Amanze, Jim Chuchu, Ayana V Jackson, Fabrice Monteiro and Zohra Opoku.

With a thoughtful approach to give international resonance to the work of the artists it represents, Galerie Mariane Ibrahim has broadened its reach by participating in art fairs and exhibitions in museums around the world (supported by a strong commitment to serving institutions).


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