Paintings by Kofi Boamah
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Kofi Boamah is a Painter based in London. He has received further development of his Art Practice at Turps Art School (Off-Site Course, 2020-2021). He has been Painting for over 10 years where Boamah concentrates on illustrating the inner workings of the human condition and creating compositions that enlighten, transform and sometimes humourize that which seems ordinary, into sagacious and challenging works. The artist’s main aim is to: “Pursue the intrinsic feeling of a violent serenity with suggesting nods to past artists and a new unknown future.” Boamah’s recent Exhibition’s include the Group Exhibition; ‘Man Digging’ at Exeter Phoenix Gallery (2023) & a Solo Exhibition entitled ‘OH GOD’ (2023) at H.A.B on Dalston Lane.
There are a lot of playful/funny/childish elements in Kofi’s paintings. Lots of bared teeth, in laughter or grimace. Humour allows us to access our subconscious without being aware we are doing so, (it just gets us, we can’t help it) without worrying we are being analysed or there is something wrong with us, jokes let us drink from the forbidden water of our own childhood. Looking at Kofi’s paintings allows us to enjoy the jokes we think we see there; humour is essentially infantile and here we approach Kofi’s themes and motifs a little closer. Infantile, scatalogical, garish, sexual, these are all ‘things’ from our lives, things we are already always intimate with since infancy. Experiences, responses to the world that never go away but just get put away further and further to the back of the cupboard. Paintings like these can reconnect us, allow our subconscious a subtle or not so subtle return. So when we say it’s hard to put into words what we think about a painting, that is because it is. Words are not as subtle as image. The desire to say something, or the feeling looking at gives you can, triggered by humour, by infantile recognition, bring true pleasure in the viewer.