Eickholt Gallery :: Kofi Fosu

Kofi Fosu was born in Accra, Ghana in a town called Osu. He migrated to The United States with his family in the early 1980's. He immediately took to the American pop culture of television. On his own, he discovered music, poetry, illustration and photography. He persued art all through his early stages of school. In highschool he excelled as a soccer player and a drummer in musical acts. After highschool, he discovered theater. He read the plays of Sam Sheperd. "The 80's gave way to people like Basquiat and David Salle. It gave me the confidence that I too could be a professional artist", Kofi says. "I was accepted to The School of Visual Arts. It was there I combined art with music and theater." He got a BFA in Creative Writing at Hunter College. Presently, he pursues writing, directing and producing as a profession. He maintains his talent as painter, hoping to develop new theories, subjects and visions. Besides studying at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, he studied painting with Marylin Minter at Xavier High School. He took classes at The School of Visual Arts and he minored in Studio Art at Hunter College.

How would you describe your style?
"My style is derived from a combination of Expressionism, Naive Art and Graffiti. Expressionism because my work is firstly emotive. It lends itself to a content of colors, (brush, oil pastel) strokes plus the overall vision that is developed as imagination and isn't always developed from the model. Rather care is given to the interpretation of the original idea and it's result is an element of magic, fantasy resolved in its realistic rammifications and the overall display of color. The psychology behind the style is that of drama, fashion, musicality and sexual politics. The women in the pieces are real people. I capture them as "muses" which indeed they are. They are not depicted as sex objects. They still manage to become relevant to ones personal psychological view of sex. I feel this is so because of the role of the women in these art pieces as spirits. Therein lies the relevance of graffiti and naive art. The women are not centerfolds or posters. Their "challenged" expressions and poses make them a little imperfect, yet a little immortal."

Which interpretation of your work do you like?
"I like my work to be interpreted as innocence meeting experience, fantasy meeting reality, the beauty of the women in the pieces not as vixens but as spirits, plus the overall fun and imaginative display of color."

Who are your most important artistic influences?
"My important artistic influences starts with my art lessons at The Metropolitam Museum of Art. My teacher there was Rikah Burman, director of the summer courses. It was there I learned composition, (Image and Text) I also learned to interpret paintings and intellectualize on the theories, styles and movements throughout Art History. At the School of Visual Art, I studied with Judith Glantzman and Bill Beckley. Judy taught me 2-dimensional design. I learned to compose within the proverbial frame. Bill Beckley introduced me to semiotics and writers like Roland Barthes, Beaudrillard and Umberto Eco. The written text is an important part of my art. I sometimes incoporate it into my paintings."

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