By Terence Trouillot

Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe’s exhibition at Roberts Projects features an ensemble of paintings that, although clearly indebted to the colorful, virtuosic work of Barkley L. Hendricks and Kerry James Marshall, present an idiosyncratic perspective on African culture through the celebrated form of black portraiture.

Ten new large-scale paintings—each portraying a friend, a fellow artist, or a stranger from the street or internet—cover the white walls of the expansive Culver City gallery for “Black Like Me,” the Ghanaian artist’s first solo gallery show in the United States.

Roberts Projects presents the exhibition of Ghanian artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe. This presentation brings together new portraits and is the artist’s first showing of work in the United States. Quaicoe’s lush and luminous oil paintings of black men and women, some strangers he streetcasts or encounters on social media, many others who are friends and colleagues, stand as visual testaments to the resilience, power and strength inherent in African culture, as articulated by the artist.

By Eve Wood

Ghanian artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe’s gorgeously rendered oil paintings, on view at Roberts Projects, are stunning both in terms of their visual content and the literal application of the paint. One can make obvious allusions to artists like Kehinde Wiley or Wangechi Mutu, but these would only represent fleeting similarities as Quaicoe’s vision is very much his own. These paintings could be described as straightforward portraits, yet that would not account for their profound luminescence and the verifiable presence of Quaicoe in seemingly every brushstroke.

By Edward Goldman

And here is another thank you – this time to Roberts Projects in Culver City – for introducing us to the work of Ghanian painter Otis Quaicoe in Black Like Me, which is Quaicoe’s first exhibition in the United States. His life-size portraits of black men and women depict his friends and colleagues, as well as strangers who he encounters on social media. Casually dressed, and presented in very informal poses, these friends and strangers reveal their personalities, their character, and their mood. Looking at these portraits, I was impressed by Quaicoe’s technical skill. But, what intrigued me the most is how different the palette is in each of these works. It seems as if the appearance and personality of each sitter persuaded and inspired him to use different colors. 

By Katy Cowan

Taking inspiration from strangers he meets on the street, encounters on social media or from friends and colleagues, Ghanian artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe paints bright and luminous portraits of black men and women. Celebrating African culture, his latest paintings, Black Like Me, are to go on show at Roberts Projects in Culver City from 11 January, which the gallery says stand as "visual testaments to the resilience, power and strength inherent in African culture, as articulated by the artist".

By Brittany Martin

We’re blessed with an abundance of museums and art galleries here in L.A., but with so many shows rotating in and out at any given time, it can be hard to keep up. Nobody wants to be the person who only finds out about a cool exhibit when it’s closing down and heading out of town. To help you make the most of your gallery-going, consult our monthly guide to the best museum exhibits in L.A. This show is the first in the U.S. for Ghanian artist Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe. The color-saturated oil paintings are portraits, often of strangers the artist sees on the street or social media, that reflect both power and struggle.