‘I Do Not Come to You by Chance’ transforms Grosvenor Hill with new paintings and a full-scale re-creation of the artist’s childhood courtyard in Ghana.
Amoako Boafo, ‘I Do Not Come to You by Chance’, 2025, installation view. Artwork © Amoako Boafo. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd. Courtesy of Gagosian.
Gagosian Grosvenor Hill is presenting ‘I Do Not Come to You by Chance’, a new body of work by Ghanaian artist Amoako Boafo. Marking his first solo exhibition in the United Kingdom, the show opened on April 10, 2025, and features a series of vibrant new paintings alongside an ambitious architectural installation that reimagines the courtyard of Boafo’s childhood home in Accra.
Titled after Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s 2009 novel, the exhibition unfolds across three rooms and continues Boafo’s exploration of Black identity, personal history, and cultural memory. Known for his expressive portraits rendered with his fingertips, Boafo’s work foregrounds self-determination, community, and intimacy themes. His subjects—often friends, family, or representations of the self—return the viewer’s gaze with poise and presence, challenging limiting narratives around the Black figure.
The exhibition’s centrepiece is a full-scale reconstruction of the artist’s childhood courtyard, developed in collaboration with Glenn DeRoche of DeRoche Projects. The courtyard transforms the gallery into a lived environment, referencing the communal settings where Boafo first encountered art and storytelling. Here, artists would gather to share materials, ideas, and support—an ethos underpinning Boafo’s practice and initiatives such as dot.ateliers | Ogbojo, the residency he launched in Ghana in 2024.
Visitors are welcomed through a wallpapered entrance that leads into the courtyard, where paintings are displayed as they might have been encountered in the artist’s formative environment. The installation not only disrupts the formality of the gallery space but also invites reflection on how place shapes perspective and creativity. The final room features Boafo’s first freestanding, double-sided painting—two life-size female figures incorporated into a sculptural folding screen inspired by the Adinkra symbol nkyinkyim, representing resilience and movement.
Many of the works on view centre on themes of relaxation and interior life. In Self-Portrait with Cacti (2024), Boafo depicts himself lying in bed, surrounded by lush greenery. It is among the artist’s most expansive and contemplative works, measuring over four metres in length. Black Cycle (2025) captures him mid-ride, dressed in a patterned outfit that echoes the design of the exhibition’s wallpaper, demonstrating his ongoing interest in repeated textures and visual continuity.
Boafo’s tactile technique—applying oil paint with his fingers rather than brushes—contributes to his portraits’ immediacy and emotional resonance. His method reinforces a direct connection between artist and subject, and by extension, between viewer and artwork.
“I make paintings that allow me to celebrate where I come from and what I aspire to be, while sharing unique perspectives and understanding,” Boafo has said.
With ‘I Do Not Come to You by Chance’, Boafo offers a collection of paintings and a layered narrative rooted in home, memory, and Black joy. The exhibition is a testament to his ongoing commitment to centring African voices and experiences within contemporary art spaces, on his terms.
The exhibition opened on April 10 and will be on view until March 24, 2025. For more information, please visit Gagosian.
