#CeciliaLampteyBotchway
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"RAE" by Cecilia Lamptey-Botchway (Ghanaian–Nigerian) - Oil, acrylic, & mopping wool fiber on canvas / c. 2021 - Nubuke Foundation (Accra, Ghana) #WomenInArt #CeciliaLampteyBotchway #LampteyBotchway #WomenArtists #BlackArt #NubukeFoundation #PortraitofaWoman #artText #IssaRae #WomensArt #WomanArtist
Titled “RAE,” the portrait references Black actress and creator Jo-Issa Rae Diop (Issa Rae), whose work foregrounds women’s equality and Black women’s interior lives. Ghanaian–Nigerian artist Lamptey-Botchway writes, “Some images always invite the observer for a conversation,” and that invitation lives in Rae’s direct gaze and unforced ease. She sits facing us with a comfortable, self-possessed calm. Her deep brown skin is modeled with soft highlights along the forehead, cheeks, and nose. Rae wears large silver hoop earrings and a hint of glossy coral-red lipstick. Her eyes meet ours directly, steady and alert. Her hair is pulled back into a textured puff, revealing her ears and the long line of her neck. She lounges in a dark chair, one arm draped over the backrest and the other hand resting across her lap with fingers relaxed. Her outfit is a vivid cobalt-blue suit with pale gray panels, stitched in thick, looping lines like corded embroidery. Beneath it, a cream top is built from dense, tactile ridges. The raised mopping-wool fibers create a topography across sleeves, lapels, and cuffs. Behind her, a hot pink field is patterned with faint grids and geometric motifs reminiscent of stamped textiles. The repetition almost frames her like a halo of design. At the right edge, a small round table with pink top and pale green base adds a domestic note, while the palette keeps the sitter luminous against the patterned pink backdrop. Oil and acrylic establish the glow of skin and the heat of pink, while mopping wool fiber turns the suit into raised, touchable relief. The artist, a 2015 graduate of the Yaba College of Technology’s School of Art, Design, and Textiles, often draws on cloth-stamping and batik traditions. By weaving a material associated with cleaning into a portrait of celebrity, she makes care-labor visible, insisting that glamour and work belong to the same story. Geometry and repetition hold her presence steady, like a rhythm you can feel with your eyes.
January 21, 2026 at 11:53 PM