Amoako Boafo

Amoako Boafo is a Ghanaian contemporary painter who has risen quickly to international attention for his bold portraits of Black subjects. Born in Accra in 1984 and later based partly in Vienna, he is best known for painting skin with his fingers rather than a brush, building up expressive, textured faces against flat, brightly colored backgrounds. The result feels both intimate and monumental.

His work centers on Black joy, dignity, and individuality, often showing friends and figures from the diaspora in stylish clothes and confident poses. He has spoken about wanting to celebrate his subjects rather than frame them through hardship. In a striking sign of his reach, his art has even been sent into space on a rocket as part of an art project, and major museums now collect his portraits.