Annan Affotey (b.1985, Ghana), creates introspective paintings which are influenced by the world around him, from the place of his birth to the places he has travelled to. Born to an artist father who inspired an early interest in creative expression, Affotey spent his early life in Accra before moving to Milwaukee, USA in 2014 to live there for five years before setting up a more permanent abode in Oxford, UK. Deeply affected by the people he observed around him as well as the social reactions to these figures, Affotey took to art to represent the complexity of the worlds he observed.
Affotey began his career as a semi-abstract painter, employing techniques such as pointillism to construct the colourful worlds he observed his subjects inhabit in Ghana. Particularly influenced by the everyday lives of women he observed, he often painted kaya yei, those who carry goods balanced gracefully on their heads or people braiding hair, which he observed at the hair salon his sister worked at. The birth of his son led him to reflect on how he can contribute to shaping the world he wanted his child to grow up in, which led to a shift in his practice. Affotey then turned to portraiture and began creating soulful, pensive representations of friends, family and public figures. For instance, his ‘Ghannata Strong’ series depicts alumni of the famed Ghanatta College of Art and Design, both well-known contemporary artists as well as emerging talent in Ghana.
The artist’s portraits bear recurring motifs. Growing up in the intensely colourful Accra, Affotey bears an intimate relationship with colours, and is unafraid to use them liberally. The subject is placed against negative space painted in bright, brilliant hues. The samaingle shade Affotey selects for the background of any portrait is shaped by his sense of the sitter’s personality as well as the subject’s preference, which illustrates the deeply collaborative artistic process Affotey practices. The Blackness of the figure’s skin is rendered incandescent through the mix of blacks, greens, blues and greys. Particularly striking are the red-tinged eyes he bestows upon his figures. Given that it is a more common phenotypic characteristic in Africa, Affotey never thought about the redness in his eyes until he moved to the US and encountered all the misunderstandings they were met with. From here he reflected on the role of the visual in social dynamics and how misinterpretations shape the lived experience of Black people. Paying keen attention to movement and body language, his portraits capture the idiosyncratic dynamism of the subject, imbuing these paintings with energy and interiority that compels the viewer into seeing the figure past first (mis)interpretations.
Annan Affotey graduated with a Diploma in Art and Painting from Ghanatta College of Art and Design, Accra, Ghana in 2007. His group exhibitions include ‘In Our Time: Selections from the Singer Collection’, with artists such as Amoako Boafo, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe and Patrick Alston, at Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA), in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA (2023); ‘Facial Recognition’ at Fabien Fryns Fine Art in Dubai, UAE (2022); ‘The Storytellers’ at Gallery 1957 in London (2022). His solo exhibitions include ‘The Journey’ at Gallery 1957 in London, UK (2022); ‘Nature’s Complexions’ at DeBuck Gallery in Saint Paul de Vence, France (2022); as well as ‘Windows to the Soul’ at Ronchini Gallery, London (2021).
