NARRATOR:

Boafo painted The Menu in 2020, from a picture of a friend he took in a restaurant in New York. For him, the brilliant yellows of his friend's pullover, and of the orchid on the table, evoke the warm welcome he received.

AMOAKO BOAFO:

When I came to New York that time, it wasn't sunny, but in the energy that I got from the people that welcomed me, it was sunny, and so I wanted to find a way to replicate that kind of energy in the painting.

NARRATOR:

In most of his paintings, Boafo chooses plain colored backgrounds to complement his characters. Here, unusually, he has incorporated pattern. He created this by transferring designs from sheets of gift wrap: first he coated the surface of the canvas with an acrylic medium, then he layered the gift wrap onto it. The acrylic medium lifted the ink from the paper and transferred it to the canvas. You'll see the same technique in other paintings in the exhibition, used to create patterns on clothing.

AMOAKO BOAFO:

You know, I did a couple of experiments, and then with time I found a way to make it mine because there's a way to do transfer which you get everything accurate. I didn't want that. I want something which I cannot replicate or duplicate if I want to.

NARRATOR:

The gift wrap adds texture to the striking composition, with its three horizontal bands: pattern above, plain background in the center and expressively painted tabletop below. These bands are interrupted by the hyper-flat painted surface of the pullover, and the blank menu. For Boafo, leaving the menu blank is a way to draw the viewer into his creative process.

AMOAKO BOAFO:

I like it that it's blank, and it gives the room for people to imagine things themselves.