On View: See Images From Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe’s 2021 Artist-in-Residence Exhibition at Rubell Museum in Miami

On View presents images from noteworthy exhibitions

COWBOYS AND TWINS take center stage at the Rubell Museum in Miami, where Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe is presenting his 2021 Artist-in-Residence exhibition. Quaicoe stands out among a proliferation of young artists emerging over the past several years whose central focus is Black portraiture.

Quaicoe generally makes portraits of his friends and family. The images are studies in contrast and representation. He paints the skin of his subjects in shades of ebony and deep gray and employs a vibrant palette for their clothing. The dramatic approach captures the individuality and innate style of his subjects with photographic detail. They appear self-possessed with rich interior lives.

Born in Accra, Ghana, Quaicoe lives and works in Portland, Ore. For his latest suite of paintings at the Rubell Museum, the artist draws on his personal and cultural history. In Ghanian Ga culture, the birth of twins is viewed as evidence of an inherent connection between the corporeal and the spiritual. The son of twins, Quaicoe explores the phenomena in series of double portraits.

He also seeks to bring visibility to the storied history of Black American cowboys. Working on a monumental, 12-foot high scale, Quaicoe is presenting a trio of powerful portraits that offer his own contemporary, fashion-forward take—cowboy hats; red turtlenecks; and long blue, black, and bleach-blonde braids with jewelry accents. CT

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe: 2021 Artist-in-Residence is on view at the Rubell Museum in Miami, Fla., from Nov. 29, 2021–October 2022

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OTIS KWAME KYE QUAICOE, “Akwete,” 2021 (oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches, 101.6 x 76.2 cm). | © Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Acquired by Rubell Museum in 2021

OTIS KWAME KYE QUAICOE, “Flamboyant Posture,” 2021 (oil on canvas, 72 x 72 inches / 182.9 x 182.9 cm). | © Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Acquired by Rubell Museum in 2021

OTIS KWAME KYE QUAICOE, “Oko,” 2021 (oil on canvas, 40 x 30 inches / 101.6 x 76.2 cm). | © Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Acquired by Rubell Museum in 2021

OTIS KWAME KYE QUAICOE, “Moses Adomah,” 2021 (oil on canvas, 144 x 108 inches / 365.8 x 274.3 cm). | © Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Acquired by Rubell Museum in 2021

OTIS KWAME KYE QUAICOE, “Rainyanni (Cowgirl),” 2021 (oil on canvas, 144 x 108 inches / 365.8 x 274.3 cm). | © Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Acquired by Rubell Museum in 2021

OTIS KWAME KYE QUAICOE, “David Theodore,” 2021 (oil on canvas, 144 x 108 inches / 365.8 x 274.3 cm). | © Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Acquired by Rubell Museum in 2021

OTIS KWAME KYE QUAICOE, “Oko and Akwete in Beret,” 2021 (oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches / 101.6 x 152.4 cm). | © Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Acquired by Rubell Museum in 2021

TOP IMAGE: Installation view Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe (3) at Rubell Museum, Miami, 2021.

FIND MORE about Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe on Instagram

FIND MORE At Art Basel Miami Beach, Los Angeles-based Roberts Projects is currently showcasing new portraits by Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe in a special Kabinett installation, presented in conjunction with his debut at the Rubell Museum. Quaicoe’s recent solo show “One But Two (Haadzii)” was on view over the summer at Roberts Projects

FIND MORE Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe was included in “Aesthetic of the Cool: Amoako Boafo, Kwesi Botchway, and Otis Quaicoe” at Gallery 1957 in Accra, and “Ontology: Conrad Egyir, Derek Fordjour, Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe, Patrick Quarm, and Yaw Owusu,” curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah at Ross + Kramer Gallery in New York. Both exhibitions showcased a tight group of Ghanaian artists who have gained notable recognition and made significant strides in recent years. Currently on view, Kye Quaicoe is featured in “Black American Portraits” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art

BOOKSHELF
In 2020, “Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe: Black Like Me” was published to document the artist’s first exhibition with Roberts Projects in Los Angeles. Also consider the recently published volume “African Artists: From 1882 to Now,” alongside “Unrealism: New Figurative Painting” and “Radical Figures: Painting in the New Millennium.”