LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE

Early Years

Yiadom-Boakye was born in London in 1977 to Ghanaian parents. She studied at Central Saint Martins before transferring to Falmouth University, where she graduated in 2000. She completed her MA in painting at the Royal Academy Schools, London, in 2003. Today, she lives and works in London, where her practice is informed by both her British upbringing and Ghanaian heritage, as well as a background in literature and writing, which continues to shape her painterly language.

Artworks

Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings centre on fictional Black figures, capturing intimate, everyday moments in a loose, gestural style. Working quickly and typically completing her canvases in a single day, she focuses on mood, character, and atmosphere rather than narrative, inviting viewers to bring their own interpretations.

What are Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s influences?

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye draws inspiration from European painters like Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Walter Sickert, and Diego Velázquez, whose painterly approaches and expressive techniques inform her work. A trained writer, she brings a literary sensibility to works like Amaranthine (2006) and Cannon Song (2011), using poetic titles to add layers of meaning. Music, particularly jazz, influences the improvisational feel of paintings such as Medicine at Playtime (2017) and For The Sake of Angels (2018), which she typically completes in a day. Yiadom-Boakye’s work centres Black figures, exploring mood, identity, and timelessness rather than fixed narratives or likeness.

Who are the models in Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s portraits?

The figures in Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings are entirely fictional. She does not work from live models, photographs, or specific references but instead invents her subjects from memory and imagination. By doing so, Yiadom-Boakye avoids fixed narratives or identities, allowing her figures to exist beyond biography or realism. This approach creates space for viewers to project their own interpretations onto the works. Although her subjects are imaginary, they exude psychological depth and familiarity, often reflecting a shared humanity that resonates widely. Her fictional figures challenge conventional expectations of Black portraiture in contemporary art.How does Lynette Yiadom-Boakye work with her materials?

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye primarily works with oil paint on canvas or linen, favouring a loose, expressive style. She typically completes each painting in a single day, a practice that helps preserve the energy and spontaneity of her brushwork. Her approach is intuitive and improvisational, often starting without preparatory sketches. She builds her compositions through layering, using a muted, earthy palette alongside moments of vivid colour. This direct and fast-paced process allows her to capture mood and atmosphere rather than precise detail, giving her fictional figures a sense of immediacy, presence, and timelessness.

Awards and Accolades

• Carnegie Prize, Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2018)
• Shortlisted, Turner Prize, Tate Britain, London (2013)
• Featured in the Venice Biennale, International Pavilion (2013)

Exhibitions

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye has been the subject of both solo exhibitions and group exhibitions at important institutions.

Solo Exhibitions

• No Twilight Too Mighty, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain (2023).
• Fly in the League with the Night, Tate Britain, London (2021). Travelled to: Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2021); K20, Dusseldorf (2022); MUDAM Luxembourg (2022); Tate Britain, London (2023).
• The Hilton Als Series: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven (2019). Travelled to The Huntington Art Gallery, Los Angeles (2020).
• Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Under-Song For A Cipher, New Museum, New York (2017)
• Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: A Passion to a Principle, Kunsthalle Basel (2017)
• Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Verses After Dusk, Serpentine Gallery, London (2015)
• Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Extracts and Verses, Chisenhale Gallery, London (2012)
• Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Any Number of Preoccupations, The Studio Museum in Harlem (2010– 2011).

Group Exhibitions

• Corps et âmes, Pinault Collection, Paris (2025).
• A Superlative Palette: Contemporary Black Women Artists, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, Charlotte, NC (2024).
• He Said/She Said: Contemporary Women Artists Interject, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas (2023– 2024).
• Reaching for the Stars. From Maurizio Cattelan to Lynette Yiadom Boakye, Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence (2023).
• Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco (2019).
• 10th Berlin Biennale, Berlin (2018).
• Their Own Harlems, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2017–2018).
• Making & Unmaking, Camden Arts Centre, London (2016).

Instagram

Yiadom-Boakye’s Instagram can be found here.

Critical Reception

Yiadom-Boakye’s practice has been widely reviewed in leading publications, including Apollo, Artnet News, and The Times.

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye FAQs

Ocula | 2025