Distinguished by its lush texture and byzantine rendering of textiles, Amoako Boafo’s Lighter, 2019, is a characteristic example of the artist’s expressive and deeply empathetic approach to portrait painting. Contemplative and highly disciplined in the studio, Boafo works primarily from photographs, distilling the essence of his sitters, usually close friends and revered cultural figures, into the dignified form of painting. He aims to ennoble subjects whom the art historical establishment has too often overlooked — people of color— by using portrait painting, the highest canonical artform, and grandiose scale to inclusive ends. Boafo strives to reconsider common conceptions of blackness and to rectify missed opportunities of representation by celebrating not only the poise and personality of his sitters but also the color of their skin, rendered with incredible eloquence and exquisite decadence through the artist’s innovative fingerpainting technique. Lighter invites the viewer to engage with the individuality of the sitter and the nature of blackness by situating the subject against a stark beige background, creating a quiet place for contemplation away from the frenzied noise of an ideological world.