NEW YORK—Lynette Yiadom-Boakye has a way with a paint brush. Each of her canvases are grand gestures—traditional-style “portraits” executed with a contemporary point-of-view. Although she doesn’t depict real people, her masterful use of color and layered, purposeful strokes assign to each of her fictional subjects a deep interior life.
Jack Shainman Gallery is exhibiting a series of new paintings the Ghanaian-born London-based artist completed this year. The gallery describes Yiadom-Boakye’s approach thus: “Urgent brushstrokes coexist with smooth overtures.”
Installation view of “All Manner of Needs,” Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s solo show at Jack Shainman Gallery.
The solo exhibition, titled “All Manner of Needs,” includes large canvases and more modest sized oil paintings, as well as a series of 20 mini black ink etchings. The show is on view from Sept. 13 to Oct. 13, 2012.
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Yiadom-Boakye talks about her process and materials for an exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem last year.
All photos © Arts Observer
“The Courtesy of a Saint,” 2012 (oil on canvas).
“Bracken or Moss,” 2012 (oil on canvas).
Installation view of “Interstellar.” In foreground, Detail of “Fly,” 2012 (hard ground etching) 20 etchings per edition, Edition of 15, with 5 artist proofs.
“Interstellar,” 2012 (oil on canvas).
Installation view with “Acid for an Act” in the foreground.
“Accompanied to the Kindness,” 2012 (oil on canvas).
Detail of “No Mind for Memory,” 2012 (oil on canvas).
From left, “No Mind for Memory” and “No Such Luxury.”
Detail of “No Such Luxury.”
From left, “Quiet Challenges” and “The Devil Having Said So.”
“A Passion Like No Other,” 2012 (oil on canvas).
Installation view of “Jewel.”
Detail of “Jewel,” 2012 (oil on canvas).
“Metaphysic,” 2012 (oil on canvas).