Amoako Boafo

Boafo paints skin with his fingers instead of a brush, so every face and arm in his portraits of Black sitters keeps the swirl of the hand that made it, set against flat, bright grounds. Born in Accra in 1984, he has put his success back into the city by opening dot.ateliers, a David Adjaye-designed space for artists, in 2022. Venice is the place to catch him this fall: the Museum of Palazzo Grimani is showing his first solo exhibition in Italy, a new body of paintings timed to the Biennale, until November 22, 2026. After that, look for his portraits in museum collections and gallery shows rather than one fixed home.