By Nii B. Andrews.
The meteoric rise of Amoako Boafo continues following his recent collaboration with Dior.
In another important career milestone, his gallery Mariane Ibrahim, announced the acquisition of a large portrait JOY ADENIKE (2019) by the Guggenheim Museum.
The Rubell Museum named him as its inaugural artist-in-residence in late 2019.
Boafo had his secondary market debut in February 2020, when The Lemon Bathing Suit (2019) sold at Phillips postwar and contemporary art evening sale in London for £675,000 ($875,000), smashing its high estimate of £50,000 ($64,800) by a factor of more than 13 and more than 3,000 percent what the seller had paid for it less than a year earlier.
This degree of rapid exposure in the secondary market can have serious drawbacks on the career of an emerging artist. As per the rules, the artist gains no money from the secondary market transaction.
In fairness, the seller explained that in proceeding with the auction sale, “(it) will be nothing but beneficial to the artist and his entire collector base and his future.
I will use the proceeds of the sale to continue to support artists who are emerging, who have little to no support in the marketplace, thin gallery representation, whose livelihood depends on my financial support.”
Boafo stated to Bloomberg prior to the auction, “Now he wants to make profit from it. The painting is so recent.…I want to have longevity, I am not too much focused on the money. If I get museum placement and shows, I am guaranteed longevity.”
And apparently the Guggenheim acquisition process was underway prior to the auction.
Boafo is one of several artists impacted by the growing trend of buyers flipping CAA by young talents; others include Derek Fordjour, Nina Chanel Abney, Jordan Casteel, and Tschabalala Self.
In an attempt to address this phenomenon in CAA, an online selling exhibition at Christie’s curated by Destinee Ross-Sutton opened on July 31 with a contract that limits the ability of buyers to flip the works later for a profit.
The thrust of the contract is to support the career development of the artists while providing a glimpse into the motivations of the buyer; it was formulated after extensive consultations with artists and other players in the art ecosystem.
It will be interesting to see how the system evolves.