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Provenance : [Propriété non datée]
- Raphael Adjetey Adjei Mayne, or RAAM, as he is known professionally, creates vibrant mixed-media portraits
- He applies textiles, acrylic paint, and ink to unstretched canvas or paper to depict subjects set against vibrantly colored backgrounds
- Although RAAM typically paints real individuals captured in photographic source material, he chooses to omit their facial features
- He believes this allows his figures to stand as participants in a collective Black community
- He integrates symbols and decorative motifs taken from Adinkra – a cotton cloth produced in Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire – to imbue his practice with the iconography of his Ghanian heritage
- He studied at the Ghanatta College of Art and Design where he honed his distinctive approach to illustrating the human form
- Currently working in Cologne, Germany, RAAM combines images from his childhood memories of Ghana with diverse influences drawn from fashion, design, and the fine arts
- Reflecting his keen engagement with contemporary culture, RAAM created a portrait of the American Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, who spoke at the inauguration of US President, Joe Biden, in 2021
- The work attracted the attention of the international media, which resulted in the portrait being acquired by the women's rights and LGBTQ+ activist Amar Singh who, in turn, donated it to the collection of the Harvard University Museum, Massachusetts
