25.10.2024 – 12.01.2025
The exhibition of works by Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo closes a circle in the artist’s biography for the time being: after studying art in Accra, Boafo studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna from 2014. Not only did he experience his formative years there artistically, he also developed his distinctive style, which is characterised by the unusual use of finger painting. This results in the sculptural depiction of the human body, which in painterly terms creates a strong contrast to the other, flat parts of the picture. The people portrayed by Boafo embody the idea of a black identity that is fuelled by their own culture, which is to be understood as an act of resistance against racist attributions by the white majority society. Boafo stages the clothing like collages with paper textures that not only borrow from floral and geometric wallpaper patterns, but also make references to historical and political dress codes of Black culture. The artist’s intensive preoccupation with Black history is subtly reflected in the paintings when literary works by central thinkers of the Black freedom movement are used as motifs.
Amoako Boafo – Proper Love
25.10.2024 – 12.01.2025
Unteres Belvedere
Rennweg 6
1030 Vienna
www.belvedere.at
