Kofi Wayo 2022

Cornelius Annor made "Kofi Wayo" as a kind of image that celebrates the act of image-making itself, through a mashup of painting and printmaking. There’s a really interesting tension here between the portrait of the figure, which is rendered in smooth, creamy brushstrokes, and the patterned background, which looks like it’s been applied using a stencil or a stamp. It's almost like the figure is emerging from a kind of dreamscape, with the patterns acting as a kind of visual echo of his personality. Look at the way Annor handles the pink hat – it's so flat and opaque, yet it has a real sense of depth and volume. It’s like he's playing with different ways of representing form and space, pushing and pulling at our perception. This brings to mind artists like Kerry James Marshall, who use similar strategies to explore issues of identity and representation. Ultimately, this piece asks us to consider how we see and interpret the world around us, reminding us that there's always more than one way to look at things.