Lynette Yiadom Boakye
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Lynette Yiadom Boakye (born 1977, London, UK) is an artist of Ghanaian descent based in London.
Boakye attended Central St. Martins School of Art and Design [1] in London from 1996-1997, Falmouth College of Art [2] from 1997-2000 and the Royal Academy Schools [3] in London from 2000-2003.
She has shown work internationally in many exhibitions including John Moores 23 [4] at the Walker Gallery [5] in Liverpool, “Direct Painting†at Kunsthalle Mannheim [6] in Germany, 2004 Bloomberg New Contemporaries [7] at various venues throughout the UK and “Blackout†at Brixton Art Gallery [8].
Lynette Yiadom Boakye makes very large portraits – often several metres tall and wide – predominantly of black women. Boakye’s paintings tackle the tricky area of stereotypes, perception and the appropriateness of social behaviour, but with an eye for humour that negates any associations of self-importance, defensiveness or kill-joy political correctness. Each of Boakye’s figures is created from a composite of drawings from life and the artist’s imagination, meaning that each of her subjects is individual enough to assert themselves as a definitive character yet able to stand as a sort of ‘everyman’ for their particular social group. Appearing in duos or alone, Boakye’s semi-invented cast includes several recurring models including Grammy award winners, angry people, missionaries and the powerful. Boakye treats these characters as conduits for certain traits against which society at large can gauge their reactions. There is nothing laboured about Boakye’s work; her purposely wonky figures are reminiscent of Chantal Joffe’s, and both artists share a lightness of touch that does not harm the authority of their paintings. Painting itself is also an important aspect to Boakye’s work; her expressive style and the inclusion of incongruous colours for certain features that jar with her implied narratives allow Boakye to indulge her painterly instincts and her self-proclaimed love of decadence.
