Aoako Boafo, Perry, 2019. © Courtesy Mariane Ibrahim Gallery
Amoako Boafo
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STRABAG Artaward International, Vienna, Austria - 2019
Walter Koschatzky Art Prize - 2017
KulturGemma!, Arbeitsstipendium der Stadt Wien - 2014
Best Portrait Painter of the Year, Ghanatta College of Art and Design - 2008
Best Abstract Painter of the Year, Ghanatta College of Art and Design - 2007
Private Collections : CCS Bard College Hessel Museum of Art Rubell Family Collection
Collected by museums and foundations The Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria
Presentation of the artist
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.
Nationality : Ghana
In connection with
Mariane Ibrahim , Chicago - United States
CV
Born in Accra, Ghana
Solo exhibitions & presentations
2019
Art Basel Miami Beach, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Miami Beach, FL
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2019
I See Me, Roberts Projects, Los Angeles, CA
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2018
Re-Masculinity, Brasil House, Accra, Ghana
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2017
Illuminated, House of Bandits, Vienna, Austria
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2017
Pillow Talks, Casino-Baumgarten, Vienna, Austria
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2017
Detoxing Masculinity, We Dey xSpace, Vienna, Austria Night School, Volkskunde Museum, Vienna, Austria
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2017
Step Into The Darkness, Kunsthalle Vienna, Vienna, Austria
CV
Group exhibitions & fairs
2019
FIAC, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Chicago, IL
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2019
Expo Chicago, Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Chicago, IL
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2019
Two Ages: Young, Crone Side, Berlin, Germany
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2019
As long as we are flying all this world ain’t got no end, Luce Gallery, Turin, Italy
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2019
Guerilla of Enlightenment, Rotor Center for Contemporary Art, Graz, Austria
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2018
The Alumni Exhibition Series, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria
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2018
Tell Me, Red House Galerie Bodenseekreis, Meersburg, Germany
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2018
“Archipelago: Island of Unpredictable Thinking” Wiener Festwochen, Hauptbüchereiam Gürtel, Vienna, Austria
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2018
“Your Pressure is My Pleasure”, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Austria
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2017
11th Young Art Auction, Novomatic Forum, Vienna, Austria
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2017
Art the Hague: In Transition, The Hague, Netherlands
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2017
Rethinking Afropolitan: The Ethics of Black Atlantic Masculinities, The College of Holy Cross, Worcester, MA
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2017
Walter Koschatzky Art Prize, Hofstallungen Mumok, Vienna, Austria
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2017
Decolonial Borderlands, Akademie der Bildenden Kunste Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Artworks
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