Laced Fingers

Record: Amoako Boafo is currently the highest-selling African artist. In 2021, his work Hands Up was auctioned for a record amount of approximately €3,100,000 at Christie’s in Hong Kong.

Educated in Accra and Vienna, Amoako Boafo – one of the key contemporary African artists – combines the artistic traditions of both continents, creating portraits that are at once bold, intimate, and deeply personal. Painted with his fingertips, the figure depicted in Laced Fingers expresses confidence and vulnerability, strength and calm, while eluding straightforward interpretation.

Having experienced marginalization in Austria because of his skin color, Boafo decided to focus on portraying Black people, who remain underrepresented in the international contemporary art world. Inspired by the expressionist portraits of Vienna Secession artists such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, he creates elegant paintings through direct touch, applying paint to the canvas with his fingers instead of a brush. In his characteristic way, the artist conveys the self-assurance, style, and character of the depicted figures, who often make eye contact with the viewer.