Red Stripes

Take a close look at the face in this portrait and you'll notice something unusual about how it was made. Amoako Boafo, a Ghanaian artist who has gained a lot of attention in recent years, often paints skin using his fingers instead of a brush. You can see the swirls and ridges of paint twisting across the man's face and neck, giving the surface a thick, almost sculptural quality. This finger-painting technique has become his signature, and it gives his subjects a sense of texture and life that feels different from a smooth, polished portrait.

Boafo is known for celebrating Black figures and Black skin, placing them front and center against plain backgrounds so there's nothing to distract from the person. Here, the man's red and white striped shirt adds a pop of color and rhythm to the lower half of the painting, balancing the darker, busier tones of his face. The artist grew up in Accra and later studied in Vienna, and his work has been collected by major museums and even sent into space on a rocket as part of an art project. What stays with you, though, is the quiet dignity of the figure looking out at you, simple and direct.