Abusua Nhyiamu 2021

Cornelius Annor’s painting brings us into a domestic space, alive with the gestures of family life. Look at the color palette: the walls are a kind of pale, mottled grey, with pops of ochre and blue, like the memory of a bright day softened by time. I imagine Annor building this painting layer by layer, like constructing a stage for a play. What’s fascinating is how he captures the human energy in the scene – that guy in the pink shirt leaning against the computer, the woman in blue carrying magazines, the older woman with a floral shirt. The paint is applied with this mix of precision and looseness, you know? He’s got this knack for capturing these fleeting moments of connection and intimacy, but he leaves enough ambiguity to let our imaginations fill in the gaps. Annor’s work, like Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s portraits, is so intimate. It reminds us that painting is just a way of sharing our vision of the world and starting a conversation that never really ends.