Born and based in Accra, Ghana, artist Emmanuel Taku works with mixed media to create paintings that uplift Black individuals and their lived experiences. He does so by creating figurative paintings of Black people on screen-printed traditional African fabric, which has been tailored into contemporary fashion. Taku’s Black figures confidently pose as if they are fashion models in a magazine. Their stance and white eyes, a reference to the Superman Man of Steel movie, are meant to exude power.
Taku’s representation of Black people aims to help Black people and viewers of his art gain the confidence that the figures he’s painted exude. This portrayal, away from the stereotyped impoverished representation of Black people, affirms the diverse experience of the Black community and establishes their confidence, giving Black excellence a platform and reflecting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Reduced Inequalities.
Emmanuel Taku’s career began when he transformed his love for art and fashion into paintings, which he shared on his Instagram. His account, which has almost 16,000 followers, gained widespread recognition and landed him a spot at the renowned Noldor Art Residency from the Institute Museum of Ghana. With the tutelage of Ghanaian artist Gideon Appah during the residency, he produced his seminal figurative series It Takes Two. As the name suggests, the works are a collection of figurative paintings portraying two Black individuals dressed in Taku’s signature looks.
In pieces like Rogue Style, Taku uses silk screen and real textile to create the high-fashion African garments. The figures’ pose and stances are inspired by fashion shows and magazines that he frequents. While his It Takes Two series always clearly portrays two figures, over the years he has also grown to paint three, four or even more figures in his paintings, as seen in Aura of Drip and Eye of The Storm signifying that matters to him is that the figures he paints are never alone.
In an interview with Fashion Week Daily, Taku shared that this is his reflection on a Ghanaian proverb about how a single broomstick could be broken easily. Yet, once they are tied together in a bunch, they are more challenging to break. “I want to make it look like everything is possible when we come together. When we come together, it doesn’t matter the colour of your skin—white, Black, or other. If we come together, there’s nothing we can’t do,” he shared in the interview.
Taku has also shared that his portrayal of all-white eyes is inspired by superheroes like Superman in the Man of Steel film, where in moments when he would show his ultimate power, his eyes would be completely white. However, Taku has also shared that Ghanaians believe power begins with what is beyond the eyes, as the most powerful beings cannot be seen with people’s naked eyes. Hence, the double entendre behind his figures’ white-out eyes. The first attests to the power of his figures and of the power of Black people, while the second is proof of how his paintings elevate his viewers, as their gaze confronts the viewers directly, and all they see is the power of the ones standing before them.
Through his bold pieces, Taku not only celebrates and redefines Black identity, but also presents an active connection between contemporary art and its viewers, uplifting both Black people and the people around them simultaneously.