King

ADJEI TAWIAH (B. 1987)  

King  

signed 'A. Tawiah' (center)  

oil and sponge cloth on canvas  

54 x 39 1/4 inches (137.2 x 99.7 cm)  

Executed in 2021.

PROVENANCE:  

Private collection, New York

NOTES:  

Born in 1987 in Kumasi, Ghana, Adjei Tawiah is a contemporary painter whose expressive portraits and mixed-media works examine themes of identity, memory, spirituality, and social transformation. A graduate of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Tawiah belongs to a generation of Ghanaian artists expanding the language of contemporary African figuration through experimentation with material and surface. His practice is distinguished by the incorporation of unconventional materials—including sponge cloth—into richly textured compositions that blur the boundaries between painting, assemblage, and sculpture. Through these layered surfaces, Tawiah constructs psychologically charged portraits that explore both individual presence and broader questions of cultural resilience and self-definition.

Executed in 2021, King exemplifies the artist’s materially driven approach to portraiture. Combining sponge cloth and oil on canvas, the work transforms everyday utilitarian material into a powerful formal and symbolic device. Tawiah manipulates the porous texture of sponge cloth to create dimensionality and rhythm across the canvas, allowing the surface itself to participate in the emotional construction of the figure. The resulting composition possesses a tactile immediacy that reinforces the subject’s physical and psychological presence.

The title King suggests authority, dignity, and self-possession, themes reinforced through the monumentality of the figure and the commanding structure of the composition. Rather than relying on literal regalia or overt symbolism, Tawiah communicates power through gesture, texture, and atmosphere. His layered application of oil paint and fabric elements creates a dynamic interplay between concealment and revelation, abstraction and representation. The work ultimately functions as both portrait and meditation on contemporary Black identity, elevating the individual subject into a broader reflection on strength, visibility, and transformation.

Tawiah’s work has been exhibited internationally in galleries and contemporary art fairs across Africa, Europe, and the United States, where his innovative material practice has attracted increasing critical attention. His paintings are recognized for their synthesis of experimental surface techniques and emotionally resonant figuration, situating him among a rising generation of artists redefining the possibilities of portraiture within contemporary African art.