On View
On viewObject number2021.17
POCCO
Artist
Patrick Quarm
(Ghanaian, 1988-)
Date2020
Mediummixed media on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 43 × 33 × 6 in. (109.2 × 83.8 × 15.2 cm)
Credit LineElisabeth Claire Lahti Fund
Exhibition History"Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century," KIA Galleries 2-5 (September 24, 2022 - December 29, 2022)
"Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century: The Remix," KIA Galleries 2&5 (January 7 - March 12, 2023)
"Legendary Voices: Art for the Next Century," KIA (September 7 - February 18, 2025)Label TextPatrick Quarm utilizes his work to process how identity is deeply informed by one’s environment and culture. Pulling from his Ghanaian heritage and his personal experience migrating to the US in 2015, his work embraces hybridity and cross-cultural dialogue he has with himself and those around him.
In POCCO, Quarm has created his own visual language by placing the figure within patterns derived from traditional African clothing and fabrics. The vibrant patterns seamlessly blend with the figure’s skin. Quarm portrays each figure’s complex story with layers, literally and figuratively, as his pieces are made up of one canvas in front of another. These layers also symbolize multidimensional identities. “The subjects of my paintings are friends, family, and colleagues, who come with their own complex backgrounds of hybridity,” the artist states. [Label for "Unmasking Masculinity for the 21st Century", 2022]
