The Studio Museum in Harlem

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is a rising British artist of Ghanaian descent whose paintings are centrally focused on the human figure. Her work is influenced by painters like John Singer Sargent, Francisco Goya and Edouard Manet, but her portraits are fictional: she is also a writer, and in her paintings she creates characters with complicated back stories that are only hinted at in the dark tones, monochromatic backgrounds and thick, textured brushwork. The Studio Museum in Harlem is currently presenting Any Number of Preoccupations, Yiadom-Boakye’s first solo museum exhibition in the U.S., on view through March 13, 2011.

Pentagram’s Eddie Opara and Brankica Harvey have designed the catalogue for the exhibition. The book includes the 24 portraits featured in the show and a short story by Yiadom-Boakye and essays by curator Naomi Beckwith and critic Okwui Enwezor. The book's simple, elegant design complements the formal atmosphere of Yiadom-Boakye’s paintings. Opara previously designed the Studio Museum magazine and Stealth, a poster installation at the museum.