Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Selected Works

Overview

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye uses traditional formal considerations of painting such as line, colour and scale juxtaposed with contemporary painting techniques and subjects. Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings are typically completed in a day to best capture a single moment or stream of consciousness.

During her residency in Sharjah in summer 2014, Yiadom-Boakye conducted studies of light and shadow and produced sketches of Sharjah’s landscape, harbour, old houses, markets and other architecture. Her technique consisted of a distinctive compositional approach informed by light, leading to examinations of colours and shadows that translate into cities and people. Returning to her signature work on the figure, the resulting works focus on solitary activity as revelations about love and self-reliance. Yiadom-Boakye’s works disrupt traditional approaches to romanticism in figurative painting, seeking to transcend social relations to consider interiority and the sublime.

This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 12