Category: Painting
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Amoako Boafo: The Skin of the Diaspora Born in Accra, Ghana, in 1984, Amoako Boafo rise to global stardom has been meteoric. His work is instantly recognizable for his “finger-painting” technique: while he uses brushes for the clothes and backgrounds of his subjects, he uses his literal fingers to apply the paint to their faces…
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Rashid Johnson: The Architect of Anxiety Rashid Johnson (b. 1977, Chicago) uses materials that carry a heavy cultural “charge.” He often works with shea butter, black soap, tropical plants, and wax—materials that are associated with African “wellness” and domesticity. He creates massive “grids”—steel structures filled with these materials, along with books by Black authors (like…
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Toyin Ojih Odutola: The Topography of the Mark Born in Nigeria in 1985 and raised in the United States, Toyin Ojih Odutola treats the surface of the skin as a landscape. She is a master of drawing, using charcoal and pen to create intricate, layered marks that give the Black skin a shimmering, metallic quality.…
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Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: The Fiction of the Soul Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (b. 1977, London) is a painter of ghosts. Her subjects are not real people; they are “composites” of memories, drawings, and found images. She works with a muted, earthy palette—greens, browns, and deep blues—and often completes a painting in a single day to maintain its emotional…
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Njideka Akunyili Crosby: The Tapestry of Memory Njideka Akunyili Crosby (b. 1983) moved from Nigeria to the United States at the age of sixteen. Her work is a visual manifestation of what it feels like to live between two worlds. Her paintings are large, intimate interior scenes—often of herself and her husband—that at first glance…
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Lubaina Himid CBE: The Archivist of Presence Born in Zanzibar in 1954 and raised in the United Kingdom, Lubaina Himid spent decades working at the margins of the art world. She was a leader of the British Black Arts Movement in the 1980s, organizing exhibitions that gave a voice to Black women. It wasn’t until…
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Kehinde Wiley: The New Old Master Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977) is perhaps the most famous portraitist in the world today. His method is a form of “street casting”: he finds young Black men and women in cities like New York, Dakar, or London and asks them to choose a pose from a classical Old Master…
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Chris Ofili: The Painter of the Blue Hour Chris Ofili (b. 1968, Manchester, UK) became the face of the “Young British Artists” (YBAs) when he won the Turner Prize in 1998. His early work was famous for its vibrant use of glitter, resin, and elephant dung—a material he encountered during a trip to Zimbabwe. This…
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Julie Mehretu: Mapping the Psychogeography of Chaos The Biography: Julie Mehretu was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in 1970, to an Ethiopian father and an American mother. Her family fled the country during the political turmoil of the late 1970s, settling in the United States. This early experience of displacement and the “mapping” of a…
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Goodluck Jane is a multidisciplinary visual artist working across painting, drawing, and mixed-media assemblage. With a background in fashion design and a family heritage rooted in painting and drawing, she integrates cut fabric, paper, and painted surfaces into layered compositions that explore identity, memory, heritage, and the human form. Central to her practice is African…