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Stepping Inside Amoako Boafo’s Studio in Accra
- Laura Matesco
- Jun 12
- 3 min read
Stepping into Amoako Boafo’s studio in Accra, Ghana, feels like crossing the threshold of a vibrant and welcoming family home. Cats weave between canvases, friends and artists pass through exchanging jokes, and the faces hanging on the walls seem strangely familiar. Naturally so: some of them belong to the very people standing before us. Boafo paints his own—his friends, his community, his contemporaries.
On one wall, a monumental portrait commands attention. A man dressed in a white jacket embroidered with multicolored birds poses against a deep ultramarine background. The face has been modeled directly with the artist’s fingers, in broad strokes that preserve the memory of the gesture. The Ghanaian artist never uses brushes—only his hands.
“With fingers, you can’t cheat,” he says. “You have to accept the movement. If you try to correct it, the painting is ruined.”
Up close, the skin becomes a landscape: ridges of blue, brown, and black create undulations that animate the surface, giving it an almost tangible presence.
At 41, Amoako Boafo is one of the most influential artists of his generation. His portraits can be found in major collections, including the Centre Pompidou, Tate, and Guggenheim. Yet he insists on a more understated truth:
“I’ve been working, experimenting, and searching for more than fifteen years. Nothing happened overnight.”
While studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, his work initially met with only limited recognition.
“My portraits were too Black,” he recalls.
So he persisted, refining his visual language. In 2018, artist Kehinde Wiley—the creator of Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait—discovered Boafo’s work on Instagram and recommended him to his galleries. Within months, Boafo moved from exhibiting in hotel lobbies in Accra to participating in major international art fairs. In 2021, one of his triptychs even traveled into space aboard a Jeff Bezos rocket.
Born in 1984 and the son of a fisherman, Boafo describes art as a refuge long before it became an ambition. The technique that would become his signature emerged almost by accident. One day, while painting a friend's fingernails, he began applying paint directly with his fingers. The gesture felt more immediate, more physical. He never abandoned it.
A passionate admirer of fashion—he has collaborated with Kim Jones for Dior Men—Boafo delights in the clothing worn by his subjects.
“What interests me is how Ghanaians present themselves to the world, how they remain elegant without spending excessively. There is a dignity in that which I want to celebrate.”
Recently, he has begun incorporating embroidered elements into his canvases, further enhancing the tactile quality of his portraits.
His success is measured not only by his market value but also by the community he has built. Through his foundation, Dot.ateliers, he hosts two residency programs—one for visual artists and another for writers and curators.
“I wanted to offer what I would have liked to find myself: a place where people can experiment, explore, and not simply produce.”
His works have now traveled far beyond the studio in Accra, most recently to the Palazzo Grimani in Venice, where Gagosian has organized his first major solo exhibition. There, his portraits—resplendent in their finest attire—stand in dialogue with the mythologies of the Renaissance.
“Amoako Boafo: It Doesn't Have to Always Make Sense” is on view at Palazzo Grimani in Venice as part of the Biennale through November 22, 2026.
— Laura Matesco - Harpers Bazaar Intérieurs - 2026 For French readers, the original version is available here.
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