AMOAKO BOAFO’S ARTWORK LAUNCHED IN SPACE
A self-portrait looking up to the skies best explains what this project means to me. I grew up knowing the sky was the limit and now I get to work on a project that goes beyond the sky as we know it. — Amoako Boafo
The award-winning portraiture and figurative painter Amoako Boafo from Ghana, Africa, made history on 26 August when his finger-painted portraits climbed up into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital space mission.
On 29 July, Uplift Aerospace, a pioneer of lunar technologies premiering a multiplanetary marketplace, commissioned Boafo to design the first art piece to travel to space under Blue Origin, an aerospace services company founded by Jeff Bezos.
The art installation is entitled Suborbital Triptych, painted on three detachable carbon-fiber exterior panels of the New Shepard spacecraft, which inaugurates Uplift’s ‘Art x Space’ Art Program.
Boafo is heavy on summoning themes of diversity and subjectivity, centered on celebrating Black diaspora, which spoke to the curator of the Suborbital Triptych series for Uplift Aerospace and Uplift Art Program, Jill Clark, as she herself “assembles diverse talents creating dramatic and inspiring exhibitions.”
“Amoako’s complex portrayals of the human spirit make him the perfect visionary to contemplate what that means and what it looks like in relation to this pivotal moment for mankind,” Clark told Artsy.
The Ghanian artist has always occupied spaces with his groundbreaking oeuvre, featuring gestural and facial portraits, and creating spaces himself for his subjects to celebrate Black joy and representation.
With Boafo’s engine and ingenuity towards art, Josh Hanes, the CEO of Uplift Aerospace, sees the artist as an auxiliary force to the space mission.
“The purpose of the Uplift Art x Space Program is to inspire new ideas and generate dialogue by making space accessible and connected to human experiences. Artists have a unique capacity to evoke fresh perspectives and interpret unfamiliar terrain. The profound strength of Amoako’s portraits for the first Suborbital Triptych will bring another dimension to the power that propels the New Shepard rocket,” Hanes said in a statement.
Boafo, along with the Uplift team traveled to West Texas to develop the original artworks on the composite panels using high-grade paint that can withstand the rigors of the spaceflight.
“The paint had an unusually strong smell, so I wore a nose mask the entire time during production. It was watery, so the panels had to be laid flat on the table to avoid unwanted marks. As it dried so fast, I had to work quickly to avoid it drying before the painting was done.” Boafo shared in a statement.
The art installation is entitled Suborbital Triptych, painted on three detachable carbon-fiber exterior panels of the New Shepard spacecraft, which inaugurates Uplift’s ‘Art x Space’ Art Program.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard unmanned rocket launched on 25 August CDT at 8:35 a.m., with Boafo’s paintings at the apex of the crew capsule adorning three parachute panels.
According to Blue Origin’s commentators, schoolchildren from Ghana watched the launch livestream.
Boafo’s triptych — Self Portrait with Pink Tulips (2021), Shormeh’s Gold Earrings (2021) and White and Gold Head Wrap (2021) — features intimate portraits of his mother, his childhood friend and artist, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, with his mother and the artist himself, all rendered in Boafo’s classic bold painting technique.
“A self-portrait looking up to the skies best explains what this project means to me. I grew up knowing the sky was the limit and now I get to work on a project that goes beyond the sky as we know it. This signifies what is possible when creatives like myself are given the chance to not only break the glass ceiling but go above it,” Boafa noted in the statement released by Uplift Aerospace.
“My mother has always been a backbone in shaping my dreams as an artist. In Ghana, where I grew up, it is said that a mother’s love comes from a place ‘out of this world’. These works are an ode to motherhood for there are not enough words that best describe a mother’s love and support,” Boafo said.
And as promised, Uplift Aerospace will donate to a charity of the artist’s choice as part of its new art program. Boafo has chosen two non-profit organizations: Little Big Souls, which works to minimize mortality and disability among Africa’s preterm infants; and Love’s Closet Foundation, which aids children’s health and development in Ghana, have been chosen by Boafo.
Before the meteoric rise of the 37-year-old contemporary artist into space, Baofo was often found on the crest in the art scene, lauded for his large-scale portrait paintings that render black folks with stylistic aura emblematic of Expressionist style while exemplifying a modern spirit through provoking colors and patterns. The New Shepard, better known as the NS-17, marks the 17th time Blue Origin’s reusable suborbital has launched.
Art in space is nothing new under the sun, all because of humanity’s unabated curiosity about what more creative force it could accomplish in a distance that is immaterial yet nautical — beyond Earth and beyond fear.