🎨 Miami MoCAAD Weekly Artist Feature

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is a British painter renowned for her richly atmospheric portraits of imagined Black figures. Working entirely from memory rather than direct reference, she creates timeless subjects untethered to specific identities or historical narratives. Through this deliberate ambiguity, her paintings free Black presence from the constraints of documentation, stereotype, and fixed time.

Weekly Artist Feature

Portrait of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Photographed by Anton Corbijn, Vogue, April 2017

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (b. 1977, London, United Kingdom) is currently featured in an exhibition where her imagined portraits engage themes of presence and Black self-representation. Click here to view "When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting", presented at Liljevalchs Konsthall (Liljevalchs+), Stockholm, Sweden (October 10, 2025 – August 30, 2026).

Previously, Yiadom-Boakye curated an acclaimed exhibition that expanded her influence beyond painting and into contemporary curatorial discourse.
Read more about the exhibition "To Improvise a Mountain: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye", presented at MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK (October 25, 2025 – January 25, 2026)

Through gestural brushwork, restrained yet emotive palettes, and spare, indeterminate settings, Yiadom-Boakye constructs scenes charged with interiority and psychological presence. Her figures often appear in states of rest, contemplation, or quiet defiance, resisting legibility while asserting autonomy. This deliberate ambiguity challenges Western traditions of portraiture and the historical conditions under which Black bodies have been rendered visible.

Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings fuse imagination, temporality, and presence—offering a space where Black life is not framed by trauma or spectacle but by interior depth and self-possession. Through painting, she invites viewers to engage with Black subjectivity as expansive, unknowable, and fully human.

, take a closer look at her profile in our Digital Artist Library →

Highlights:

Yiadom-Boakye earned a BA from Central Saint Martins, London, and completed postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy Schools, London.
Renowned for a painting practice centered on imagined Black figures, working exclusively from memory and invention rather than live models or photographs.
Major solo exhibitions include presentations at Tate Britain, London (2020); Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Spain (2023); and Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2015).
Represented Great Britain at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), marking a significant international milestone in her career.
Awarded the Carnegie Prize (2018) and shortlisted for the Turner Prize (2013), recognizing her impact on contemporary painting.
Her work is held in major public collections worldwide, including Tate (UK), The Museum of Modern Art (New York), and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Click the link to learn more about Lynette Yiadom-Boakye and her work through her Instagram. Watch the video below!

Miami MoCAAD Weekly Artist Feature | Lynette Yiadom-Boayoke

Featured Exhibitions

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, “Sunbird 3”, 2025

When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting – Liljevalchs Konsthall (Liljevalchs+) in Stockholm, Sweden (October 10, 2025 – August 30, 2026) A landmark exhibition exploring 100 years of Black figuration and redefining the global history of painting. On view now, the exhibition situates her imagined portraits within a sweeping dialogue on presence, interiority, and Black self-representation.

🔗 View exhibition details here →

“To Improvise a Mountain: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Curates” – MK Gallery, Milton Keynes, UK (October 25, 2025 – January 25, 2026) Curated by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, this exhibition brings historic and contemporary international artists into dialogue across painting, sculpture, photography, film, and drawing, tracing evolving approaches to figuration from the 19th century to the present.

🔗 Click here to learn more about this exhibition →

Past Exhibitions

“To Improvise a Mountain: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye Curates” – Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds, UK (May 16 – October 5, 2025)
“Keep the Moon Amongst Ourselves” – Corvi-Mora, London, UK (January 18 – March 1, 2025)
“Edges of Ailey” – Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA (September 25, 2024 – February 9, 2025)
“Fly in League with the Night” – Tate Britain, London, UK (November 24, 2022 – February 26, 2023)