Amoako Boafo

He attended the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Accra, and later continued his education at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in Austria.^[2][3]

While attending grad school in Vienna, he received comments about his artwork saying that his figures were "too black". Unfazed by the negativity thrown at him, Boafo kept pushing to create his work. According to gallerist Ibrahim, Boafo's paintings represent a leap forward in portraiture, stating that he changed and innovated the way portraiture is done, doing so made him recognized early on. Mariane Ibrahim was one of the reasons Boafo gained popularity, Ibrahim specializes in representing African diaspora art. Ever since Boafo's paintings sold at a high price, people have been searching for his art more.^[4]

Boafo's portraits focus on posture, clothing, and the stroke^{[clarification needed]} of skin which he accentuates with the finger painting technique.^[5][6]

In 2019, Boafo participated in a residency at the new Rubell Museum in Miami, Florida, and in 2020 collaborated with Dior for their Spring/Summer 2021 Men Collection.^[7][8][9]

His work Suborbital Triptych, consisting of three portraits of himself, his mother, and a friend's mother, was printed on the top of the crew capsule of a New Shepard rocket that performed an unmanned suborbital launch on August 26, 2021, reaching outer space with an apogee of 106 km.^[10] On 26 May 2022, his debut U.S. exhibit, Soul of Black Folks, opened at Contemporary Art Museum Houston^[11] and later traveled to the Denver Art Museum^[12] in 2023.

Boafo's work is in private and public collections, most recently in the Blenheim Art Foundation, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Hirshhorn Museum, Rubell Museum, Marieluise Hessel Collection, the Aishti Foundation, the CCS Bard College Hessel Museum of Art, the Pizzuti Collection of Columbus Museum of Art, Colección Solo and the Albertina Museum in Vienna.^[13][14][15]

• 2017 – Jury prize, Walter Koschatzky Art Prize^[16][17]
• 2019 – STRABAG Art award International^[18]

Boafo is represented by Mariane Ibrahim Gallery in Chicago and Roberts Projects in Los Angeles.^[19] In 2021, his Hands Up (2018) sold for HKD 26.7 million ($3.4 million) at Christie's in Hong Kong.^[20]