Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, born in 1977 in London, where she continues to live and work, is a British artist of Ghanaian descent known for her figurative paintings that explore identity, representation, and memory. Her work is characterized by the use of imagination and personal recollection to construct portraits of figures that appear to exist outside of any specific time or place. These enigmatic characters, often accompanied by equally ambiguous titles, are not linked to any clear narrative, inviting viewers to interpret them as suggestions rather than as traditional portraits or protagonists of a defined story.

Yiadom-Boakye’s artistic research is deeply rooted in the study of painting traditions, paying close attention to technique, structure, composition, and color as tools for exploring ideas of identity and representation. She exclusively paints people of color, drawing attention to their absence in Western art history. This choice is both a normative and political statement, intentionally creating a tension that runs through all of her works.

Her varied painting styles, along with her unique approach to composition, position her practice within the legacy of figurative painting. Yiadom-Boakye looks to late 19th and early 20th-century art, particularly Impressionism, as a period where it became possible to reinvent painting, both in subject matter and technique. By playing with the gaze of her characters, the artist reworks traditional visual language, transforming classical motifs and poses into a contemporary interpretation of portraiture.