The Museum of Palazzo Grimani, part of the National Archaeological Museums of Venice and the Lagoon, is hosting Amoako Boafo’s first solo exhibition in Italy from May 6 to November 22, 2026. The exhibition, produced by Gagosian and organized in collaboration with the Venetian museum, is part of the program of the 61. Venice Art Biennale and represents a new chapter in the dialogue between contemporary art and historical heritage that the institution has been pursuing for several years.
Palazzo Grimani constitutes one of the most important examples of Tuscan-Roman Renaissance architecture in Venice. Over time, the museum has complemented its collection of classical and modern works with a series of interventions and projects dedicated to contemporary art, developing a direct confrontation between current practices and the history of the place. Boafo’s exhibition is located within this path, proposing a dialogue between the artist’s research and the architectural and cultural context of the building.
Amoako Boafo’s work focuses on the genre of portraiture, which the artist reworks through a reflection on themes of identity, style and representation. Her paintings depict subjects with a focus on their individuality and presence, elements that also emerge through the direct relationship established with the viewer’s gaze. The figures, often caught frontally, assert an active and conscious dimension, far from traditional descriptive or narrative approaches. A central feature of Boafo’s practice concerns the painting process. The artist applies color directly with his fingers, replacing the brush with a physical contact that makes the gesture a visible part of the work. The pictorial surface thus retains the trace of the action, transforming the treatment of pigment into a structural element of the image.
Born in 1984 in Accra, Ghana, Boafo lives and works between his home country and Europe. In 2013 he moved to Vienna, where he and artist and curatorə Sunanda Mesquita founded WE DEY, a space dedicated to exhibitions, workshops, and community programs. The center was founded with the goal of providing visibility and support for the demands of black and LGBTQ+ artists in a cultural context where such voices were largely marginalized. Confronting the marginalization of the black community in the global contemporary art scene, Boafo focuses his work on the representation of black subjects. His self-portraits take on an autobiographical character and address issues of vulnerability, creativity and identity construction, challenging established narratives of masculinity. Alongside these, the artist creates portraits of men, women and couples, often friends or esteemed people, chosen for their personal and relational value.
The Venetian exhibition draws inspiration from the Renaissance atmosphere of Palazzo Grimani and the city’s portrait tradition. Boafo relates directly to the historical context and architecture of the palace through a series of new works created especially for the occasion. The works will be installed on the second floor of the building, creating a confrontation between the contemporary representation of black people and the visual legacy of Venetian art masterpieces.
Amoako Boafo, born in 1984 in Accra, Ghana, where he lives and works, initially trained as a self-taught artist, approaching drawing and painting from childhood. Before embarking steadily on an artistic career, he carried out several activities, including being a semi-professional tennis player. He graduated in 2008 from the Ghanatta College of Art and Design in Accra, receiving the institution’s award for best portrait painter in the same year. In 2013 he moved to Vienna, where he and artist and curatorə Sunanda Mesquita founded WE DEY, a space dedicated to exhibitions, workshops and community programs supporting artists of color and LGBTQ+ voices. In 2017 he was awarded the Walter Koschatzky Kunstpreis and in 2019 the STRABAG Artaward International; in the same year he earned an MFA from the Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien and was artist-in-residence at the Rubell Museum in Miami, which is presenting an exhibition featuring work made during the residency.
Between 2021 and 2022, the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco organized the traveling solo exhibition Soul of Black Folks, consisting of more than thirty portraits. In parallel, Boafo develops collaborations in extra-artistic spheres, including one with Kim Jones for Dior’s spring/summer 2021 men’s collection, characterized by the exclusive use of black models. In August 2021 he creates Suborbital Triptych, a project for Uplift Aerospace’s Art × Space program, with three paintings applied to the parachute panels of a Blue Origin rocket. In 2022 he opened dot.ateliers in Accra, a space designed by David Adjaye dedicated to cultural production and experimentation, expanded in 2024 with dot.ateliers | Ogbojo, a residency program for writers and curators. In the same year, Vienna’s Belvedere presents Proper Love, the first extensive European museum exhibition dedicated to his work.
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| Amoako Boafo at Palazzo Grimani: the first solo exhibition in Italy during the Biennale |
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