The Collection

Amoako Boafo is a painter acclaimed for his finger-painted portraits that celebrate Black identity and subjectivity. His vivid canvases, often set against bold monochrome backgrounds, highlight the individuality, style, and presence of his subjects—friends, acquaintances, and cultural figures—while challenging stereotypes and expanding the traditions of portraiture. Boafo’s distinctive method of manipulating pigment with his fingers imbues his works with intimacy and tenderness, while his use of color and pattern reflects influences from both African and European modernism.

Boafo studied at Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Accra, winning its portraiture prize in 2008, and later earned an MFA at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna (2019). In 2013, he co-founded WE DEY, a Vienna-based space supporting artists of color and LGBTQ+ voices. He was awarded the Walter Koschatzky Art Prize (2017) and the STRABAG Artaward International (2019). In 2019, he was artist-in-residence at the Rubell Museum in Miami, which presented his inaugural U.S. solo exhibition. His traveling survey Soul of Black Folks (2021–24) was organized by the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, with venues including CAM Houston, Seattle Art Museum, and Denver Art Museum. In 2024, the Belvedere in Vienna mounted Proper Love, the first major European museum exhibition of his work.

Boafo’s paintings are held in major collections, including Tate Modern (London), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Leopold Museum (Vienna), Denver Art Museum, Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art (South Korea), and the Rubell Museum (Miami), among many others.