Lynette Yiadom-Boakye creates character studies in the form of paintings. She combines dark hues and elegantly poised figures to subtly reveal facets of individual lives. In Bracken or Moss, the most striking feature is the subject’s eyes—the bright whites stand in stark contrast to the dark pupils and deep shadows of the figure’s skin—which are fixed directly at the viewer. Shrouded in black, the work casts a hypnotic spell that draws the viewer in to slowly decipher the elements of a face and the outline of a body.

Born in London to Ghanaian parents in 1977, Yiadom-Boakye is a renowned painter who finds artistic inspiration in the men and women in her community as well as in the 19th-century Impressionist painters Édouard Manet and Edgar Degas. Yiadom-Boakye uses the conventions of European portraiture, which focuses on realistic depictions of a human subject in order to capture the essence of the individual. She creates imaginary portraits from composites of familiar people, carefully constructed from memories, scrapbooks, and friends. Black subjects are painted in a deep palette, often punctuated with earthy green, blue, and yellow tones. Unlike traditional portraits, markers of class or status such as clothing and interior decor objects and scenery are absent in her portraits. Without indications of era or class, her paintings appear both timeless and very much of this time.

The MCA acquired Bracken or Moss in 2013, at a time when conversations about visibility and what it means to be a witness were gaining traction in global discourse. Interestingly, if you move from the front of Bracken or Moss to the side, the light on the canvas shifts, making the surface of the man’s face more visible. Perhaps, as the painting seems to suggest, the act of looking is equally as profound as what you see.