About Francis Akpata

This is what I attempt to depict with my paintings, I am particularly interested in altering or affecting the audience’s perception of a person, an object or concept.

I also like to place a painting in different settings or context. I have exhibited with a group called Art Below where we exhibit a painting in a gallery and then placed a poster of the painting in an open space, like the train station or a bill board poster. I like the reaction of the audience when they see a painting or sculpture in a setting where they would not normally expect it. 

I am particularly influenced by three art movements, German expressionism in relation to my use of colour, Cubism/African sculpture when it comes to drawing or use of space. Perspective and abstract expressionism, in relation to depicting subconscious ideas.

I have an initial idea and then slowly decide which style would be most apt to depict the idea. Following Kant’s idea, I aim not just to depict the beautiful which “relates to the form of the object” and has “boundaries” which reduces the ability to depict anything that will challenge the audience’s expectations. Kant said the sublime “is to be found in a formless object” which is represented by “boundlessness”. That “boundlessness” quality is what I want the subject to have in my painting. I paint in the representational and abstract form. With representational I choose my subjects when I am interested in something that relates to the subject or have met someone that has an interesting face or unique personality. I have done a series of portraits of Jazz and classical composers. The style here is a mixture of expressionism in the use of colour and cubism in terms of space and perspective.

With representational painting, I am more focused on using my conscious mind and imagination but would like the perceiver to have a variety of interpretations. I have less control with abstract painting, In that while meditating or carrying out an unrelated activity, a theme or idea comes to me. This could be listening to music or watching a film. That Idea becomes the subject of the painting. I usually stand in front of a canvas and paint until some patterns and shapes form a rhythm and format of their own. Abstract painting teaches me to trust my subconscious mind, to create pattern with colour and take for a journey to reach its own destination. I like abstract painters like Kandinsky, Hans Hoffman and Mark Rothko. They enable us to see how colour and form, without representing anything in particular, give us the feeling of perceiving the sublime. The same occurs with the paintings of Van Gogh, Basquiat and Lucien Freud. 

I like to play classical or ambient music when painting. With a representational painting, the music makes me focus and concentrate on detail. While painting abstract, the music enables me to tap into the subconscious meditative mood. In the future I aim to make installation videos with performance artists.