T List: In London, a Ghanaian Artist Exhibits Paintings in a Re-creation of His Family’s Courtyard

When the figurative artist Amoako Boafo was growing up in Accra, Ghana, the courtyard of his family home was the place where everything happened. He remembers “family gatherings, playing, sleeping, cooking … It’s where I learned to paint with friends,” he says. In a new show at Gagosian’s outpost in London’s Grosvenor Hill, Boafo has collaborated with the American architect Glenn DeRoché to transform the gallery into a full-scale reconstruction of the courtyard, complete with an entrance wallpapered in his signature paper-transfer technique. A new series of paintings, hung in the renovated space, continues Boafo’s exploration of Black bodies at rest and includes one of his largest self-portraits, measuring over 13 feet in length. His first double-sided free-standing painting is displayed in a separate room within a sculptural wood enclosure. “The courtyard shaped my understanding of space and community, and I wanted to honor that communal experience by inviting visitors to feel the strength and creativity that comes out of it,” Boafo says.