The artist transforms the gallery into a living extension of home, memory and making.
A Studio Recreated Inside the Gallery
For his third solo presentation with Roberts Projects, Amoako Boafo collapses the distance between creation and exhibition. I Bring Home with Me opens on January 17 and physically reconstructs the artist’s studio inside the Los Angeles gallery, transporting the sensory rhythm of Accra, Ghana into a new geographic and cultural context.
The exhibition is anchored by an architectural collaboration with designer Glenn DeRoche, who worked closely with Boafo to build a one to one scale environment that treats home as something portable rather than fixed. Visitors pass through vibrant monstera patterned wallpaper into a sequence of light filled passages, grid windows and semi enclosed spaces that blur the boundary between interior and exterior.
Portraiture Embedded in Space
Within this recreated studio, Boafo presents a new body of portraits rendered using his signature fingertip painting technique. Known for their direct gazes and tactile surfaces, the works are not isolated on white walls but integrated into the architecture itself. Paintings appear within the studio framework and inside a folding wooden sculpture inspired by the Adinkra symbol nkyinkyim, which represents transformation and resilience.
This integration reinforces the idea that the portraits and the space are inseparable, reflecting the communal and multifunctional nature of Boafo’s real working environment. The result is an exhibition that feels lived in rather than staged.
Redefining the Meaning of Home
By inviting viewers into this constructed sanctuary, Boafo challenges the conventions of the traditional gallery. The exhibition becomes a fluid environment shaped by personal memory, family history and cultural continuity, offering what the artist describes as the elsewhere within here.
