Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe is an artist born in 1988 in Accra, Ghana, where he grew up as one of six children.

As a child, he first dreamed of football, of the movement and the light on the pitches. But it was above all the hand-painted film posters that once filled the streets of Ghana that left a deep mark on his imagination. These expressive, larger-than-life portraits awakened in him an attraction to image and emotion that has guided his path.

He enrolled at Ghanatta College of Art and Design, where he developed his technique. Art then became for him a way of seeing the world and celebrating the dignity of everyday life.

Today, Quaicoe lives and works in Portland, Oregon. He paints luminous figures on bright monochrome backgrounds, in portraits centred on the pride and self-assertion of his subjects.

He explains that what draws him to his subjects is their inner strength and their attitude, which he tries to understand by putting himself in their place.

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe devotes his work to the representation of Black identity, drawing on memory and everyday life.