Adanfo Pa 2022

Cornelius Annor made this painting, Adanfo Pa, presumably recently, and in oil on canvas. Look at how the figures emerge through careful blending and glazing of colour, built up slowly, in a way that I imagine is about honouring their sitters. Annor uses the conventions of formal portraiture and the traditional Western medium of oil paint to render modern Black subjects. I wonder what he was thinking about as he made this? The man seated on the desk has a cool, unbothered air and the floral wallpaper could be a nod to Chris Ofili, who is known for incorporating traditionally feminine imagery into his paintings of Black subjects. The patterns on the sitter's shirt are so full of life, and the light catches on his gold ring and flashes back at us as viewers. Painting like this is a way of seeing, thinking, and experiencing the world. It also sets up a conversation between artists across time, inspiring each other's creativity and approach to embodied expression. There is ambiguity here but also feeling, intention, and meaning.