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Works Exhibited
About
When I’m making paintings, I want the characters to be strong, I want them to be free, I want them to be independent, I want them to be unapologetic.
—Amoako Boafo
Gagosian is pleased to announce Amoako Boafo: what could possibly go wrong, if we tell it like it is, the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery. Opening on March 16 at 980 Madison Avenue, the solo exhibition of new paintings will also be Boafo’s first in New York. A selection of the exhibited works will travel to Accra, Ghana, and be presented at dot.ateliers in May 2023.
Boafo’s large-scale portraits portray his friends and those he admires with candor, joy, and individuality. Focused on Black identity, his monumental paintings have already become key works in the representation of contemporary Africa and the African diaspora.
Boafo paints the faces and bodies of his subjects with his fingertips rather than a brush, the directness of his touch enhancing their expressive qualities. The works’ surfaces feature a gestural facture which the artist uses to model the figures’ anatomy. Making eye contact, Boafo’s subjects return the gaze of the viewer in an assertion of presence and identity, reflecting the artist’s interest in conveying charisma and individuality. The characters occupy domestic interiors, their casual grace reinforced by the familiarity of these settings.
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Press
Gagosian
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Hallie Freer
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+1 212 744 2313
Polskin Arts
Meagan Jones
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Julia Esposito
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+1 212 715 1643
News
Exhibition
Amoako Boafo
what could possibly go wrong, if we tell it like it is
May 25–July 6, 2023
dot.ateliers, Accra
www.dotateliers.space
Amoako Boafo: what could possibly go wrong, if we tell it like it is—an iteration of the artist’s debut solo exhibition at Gagosian—will be presented at dot.ateliers in Accra. It includes a selection of paintings from the New York presentation as well as new portraits. Boafo’s subjects return the gaze of the viewer, asserting their presence and identity, and conveying the artist’s interest in charisma and individuality. Painted by the artist with his fingertips, the figures occupy domestic interiors, their casual grace reinforced by the settings’ familiarity.
Boafo opened dot.ateliers in December 2022 to strengthen and advance the cultural ecosystem of Accra. Housed in a three-story structure designed by architect David Adjaye, it features a gallery, studios, an art library, and a café, and offers exhibitions and residencies that encourage creative expression and experimentation.
Amoako Boafo, Shower Song, 2023 © Amoako Boafo
Performance
aja monet
With Weedie Braimah, Jeremiah Edwards, Craig Harris, Jehbreal Jackson, and Samora Pinderhughes
Saturday, March 18, 2023, 4pm
Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, New York
Join Gagosian for a live performance by blues poet, musician, and organizer aja monet inside the exhibition Amoako Boafo: what could possibly go wrong, if we tell it like it is at Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, New York. Through an immersive interchange of spoken word and song, monet will share new poetry composed in response to the large-scale portraits on view, which blend themes of Black love, resistance, joy, and community building. Supporting monet will be pianist and composer Samora Pinderhughes and percussionist Weedie Braimah—both collaborators on monet’s forthcoming album, when the poems do what they do—as well as trombonist Craig Harris and bassist Jeremiah Edwards, with vocals from Jehbreal Jackson.
aja monet. Photo: Fanny Chu
