Augustine Kofie

AGUSTINE KOFIE

UNITED STATES

 Born and based in Los Angeles and active in the Southern California graffiti scene since the early nineties, multimedia artist Augustine Kofie (b. 1973) works in painting, collage and mural interventions. Kofie’s fine art practice draws together the languages of graffiti’s deconstructive lettering, mechanical drafting, modern architecture, and plunderphonics, creating a unique take on constructivist abstraction, or as the artists refers to as ‘Vintage Futurism.’ Kofie has been featured in Juxtapoz, Graffiti Art Magazine, The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti, Le Petit Voyeur and VNA Magazine 26.  His work is in both national and international private collections and has appeared on numerous book and album covers. Recent exhibitions include Adventures in Tonality, Gallery Openspace, Paris (2020); State of Mind, Hashimoto Contemporary, New York City (2021); ROTATIONSHIPS. Heron Arts, San Francisco (2022) & 1970s / GRAFFITI / TODAY, Phillips Gallery, NYC (2022)

Augustine Kofie is undeniably one of the most prominent representatives of Graffuturism. Historically, the American artist is among those who most contributed to this revolution in graffiti, using canvasses, wood, and recycled objects to create abstract compositions and retro-futuristic visions. Self-taught, which makes his technique all the more
impressive, Augustine Kofie has opened a rich dialogue between architecture and movement, and between the iconography of the 1960s and contemporary art. Based on superpositions, his works are the result of a long process of reflection in which geometrical shapes (triangles, squares, rectangles, etc.) are constantly balanced with linearity and perspectives constantly twisted.