ArtSEA: Dancing in Seattle parks and poetry on public buses

Seeing people differently is a central theme of the new show at Seattle Art Museum. Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks (through Sept. 10) showcases some 30 mesmerizing portraits by the contemporary Ghanaian artist, whose unconventional finger-painting technique makes you look twice, and then again.

Beckoning viewers from squash-yellow walls, Boafo’s engaging faces appear both very still and teeming with life. The energetic effect is thanks to the visible strokes his fingers have made to achieve his subjects’ skin. Combining thickly layered shades of brown, black and deep blue, Boafo conveys his point: no one can be reduced to a single color. 

The title is a nod to W.E.B. Du Bois and his book The Souls of Black Folk (1903). In it, the writer and sociologist — who is buried in Accra, Ghana, near Boafo’s hometown — introduced the idea of the “double consciousness” Black Americans contend with, forced by the legacy of slavery to see themselves through the eyes of white society.

Several of the portraits reflect a keen appreciation for fabrics and fashion, as the figures sport striped dresses, flowered shirts and one killer red-and-pink checkered suit. But the eyes are key elements here, holders of the “Black gaze.” Some are dotted with pink at the tear ducts; most have the pull of a tractor beam. 

“My work is not complete until the viewer has interacted with the piece,” Boafo says in his artist statement. And he makes it impossible not to — especially when you meet each gaze in person.