Inspired by the basic building blocks of the geometric world, Augustine Kofie has formed a retro-futuristic aesthetic which transplants these shapes and angles into a soulful, organic, yet highly mathematical form of abstraction. Merging his traditional graffiti education, his inclination toward “certain colour forms and certain application techniques”, with his deep love of illustration and preliminary design, his fondness for “drafts, architectural renderings and pre-production concepts”, Kofie plays with form and line, with balance and depth, twisting and manipulating his murals, his illustrations, his compositions, into ever new and dramatic arrangements.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Kofie’s instinct to draw was cultivated through the creativity of his mother. Whilst she was studying fine arts at UCLA, Kofie was using the supplies that lay around his house to start experimenting on his own, he starting to excel in drawing by the time he had reached middle school. Whilst his art education never went further than high school, Kofie’s real training was garnered through his time spent painting graffiti, he coming to prominence in the Los Angeles graffiti scene by the mid 1990s. Giving him an extensive understanding of both “colour and layering, points of perspective and arrangement”, graffiti not only gave Kofie his technical foundation however, it also provided the underpinning for his love of construction and form: Through drafting and sketching wildstyle pieces, “stretching the letters out and rebuilding them, giving them varied points of perspective and basically building shapes out”, Kofie began to understand the architectural basis of writing, an understanding pushing him to focus on the linear rather than alphabetic aspects of his work. Having also felt that he had made an honest contribution to the LA graffiti scene, Kofie’s evolutionary drive meant he soon began to “distort and manipulate” his work, attempting to “re-contribute and redistribute something new”.
Developing his aesthetic into an almost pure abstraction then, dominated by the simple squares, triangles and circles that make up our structural universe, Kofie’s relentless desire to experiment and explore his visual surroundings meant he was forced to engage in a constant test of his own mindset and preconceived ideas, each work an attempt to find a geometrical solution to a graphical problem. Putting his entire soul into his work, into his craft, Kofie has thus formed an intensely layered, earthy, dynamic style of contemporary muralism, an illustrative practice which digs deep and looks forward, a practice, like the Roman God Janus, which surveys the future and the past at very the same time.
-Rafael Schacter , honorary research fellow at the Department of Anthropology at University College, London, 2013.
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Solo show – « OFF/GRID » – April 2015
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 | « PAINTERLY », Galerie Open Space. Paris (France)
2018 | « MNKZM » Swinton & Grant. Madrid (Espagne)
2017 | « BUILD FROM MEMORY ». Galerie Open Space. Paris ( France)
2015 | « INVENTORY ». Jonathan LeVine Gallery. New York (USA)
2015 | « OFF/GRID ». David Bloch Gallery. Marrakech (Morocco)
2014 | « TAKING SHAPE »Openspace. Paris. (France)
2014 | « YESTERDAY’S ADVANCE. Celaya Brothers Gallery. (Mexico)
2013 | « STRUCTURALLY SOUND ». White Walls Gallery. San Francisco (USA)
2013 | « CALIFORNIA SOUL ». Open Space Gallery. Paris (France)
2012 | « WORKING AN ANGLE ». Known Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2011 | « CIRCULATORY SYSTEM ». White Walls Gallery. San Francisco (USA)
2010 | Retrofitted & other forms of Vintage Futurism. White Walls Gallery. San Francisco (USA)
2009 | « VINTAGE FUTURISM ». Zero1 Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2007 | Kofie Vs SURU – SURU Store. Los Angeles (USA)
2006 | Electric Avenue – Bent Gallery. Pasadena (USA)
2006 | « HANDS ON ». Transport Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2005 | Recent Painting. Still Life Gallery. New York (USA)
2005 | Claska Gallery Installation. Meguro-Ku. Tokyo (Japan)
2004 | « STREETWISE 3 ». Lab 101 Gallery. Santa Monica (USA)
2001 | « MOBILIZATION ». 33 1/3 Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
2018 | Group Show . Galerie Matthew Namour . Montréal (Québec)
2018 | Group Show . David Bloch Gallery . Marrakech (Maroc)
2017 | « COMPRENDIUM» ;.Treason Gallery . Seattle (USA)
2017 | « EAST LOOKING WEST » . An outside perspective -Heron Arts . San Francisco (USA)
2017 | « A MAJOR MINORITY » . Mirus Gallery . San Francisco (USA)
2017 | « ABSTRAKT FORUM 2 » . Cracovie (Pologne)
2017 | «Adventures in Abstraction». Stolen Space . London (UK)
2017 | « MULTIPLES OF MULTIPLES » ..Jonathan Levine Projects . NYC ( USA)
2017 | « WELCOME TO NEW JERSEY ». Jonathan Levine Projects . NYC (USA)
2017 | «RESET». Athen B. Gallery. Oakland (USA)
2017 | « MNI WICONI ». Tangent Gallery. Detroit ( USA)
2016 | « PLEASE DON’T TOUCH ». Open Space Gallery. Paris ( France)
2016 | Grand Opening at Matthew Namour Gallery. Montréal (Canada)
2016 | « BRICK TO CANVAS ». A Survey Of International Street Art. Tinney Contemporary. (USA)
2016 | « EXCEPTIONAL ». Scream Gallery. London (UK)
2015 | « COSMIC FLUSH EXHIBITION ». Magda Danysz Gallery. London(UK)
2015 | Graffuturism 5 Year Anniversary. 866 Geary gallery. San Francisco (USA)
2014 | « REWIRED ». Gamma Transport Division. Eidenburgh (Scotland)
2014 | « Exhibit Z ». Library Street Collective. Detroit, Michigan (USA)
2014 | ASSIOMA: Moneyless & A. Kofie. Avantgarden Gallery. Milan (Italy)
2014 | MCLA Booth. Los Angeles Art Fair. LA Convention Center (USA)
2013 | Three The Hard Way: Jerry Joker Inscoe, Christopher Derek Bruno, A. Kofie. Breeze Block Gallery.
Portland, Oregon (USA)
2013 | « L’AVENIR ». A Graffuturism Group Show. White Walls Gallery. San Francisco (USA)
2013 | De La Ligne a L’abstraction. Yves Laroche Gallery. Montreal (Canada)
2013 | « OUT WITH THE OLD ». Library Street Collective. Detroit, Michigan (USA)
2013 | « WIDER THAN A POSTCARD ». Breeze Block Gallery. Portland, Oregon (USA)
2012 | Conversations: Jaybo & A. Kofie. Soze Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2012 | GATHER: 2 man Exhibition & mural project. The Lovell Gallery. Cape Town (South Africa)
2012 | Gamma Proforma Presents: FUTURISM 2.0. Blackall Studios. London (UK)
2012 | « GEOMETRICKS ». Brooklyn Street Art Presents. Gallery Brooklyn. New York (USA)
2012 | « SPACE // FORM ». Breeze Block Gallery. Portland, Oregon (USA)
2012 | DAB & MYLA and Friends. Thinkspace Gallery. Culver City
2012 | Streets Of The World. Opera Gallery. New York (USA)
2012 | Sesame Street: Group Show/ Benefit. Known Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2012 | Well & Good Present: D i s c o v e r y, Toronto (Canada)
2012 | LA Freewalls Inside. LA Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2012 | White Walls Gallery. Winter Group Show. San Francisco (USA)
2011 | Rudimentary Perfection. Recoat Gallery. Glasgow (Scotland)
2011 | David Bloch Gallery. Group Exhibition. Marrakech (Morocco)
2011 | « LINEAR EMPIRES ». White Walls Gallery. San Francisco (USA)
2011 | « UNINTENDED CALCULATIONS ». Becker Galleries. Vancouver (Canada)
2011 | Edifice Cache. Morono Kiang Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2010 | Op Straat. Willem Kerseboom Gallery. Amsterdam (Netherlands)
2010 | L’art Urbain. Addict Gallery. Paris (France)
2010 | Scope Art Fair. Williem Kerseboom Gallery. Basel (Switzerland)
2010 | Urban Avantgarde. STROKE 2.0 Urban Art Exhibition. Munich (GER)
2010 | « NEVER A DULL MOMEN ». White Walls Gallery. San Francisco (USA)
2010 | Street Legal. Rivera & Rivera Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2009 | « METALLUM ». The Ronin Gallery. Echo Park, Los Angeles (USA)
2009 | « CLIMB IN THE BACK WINDOW ». Shadow ‘s Space. Philadelphia (USA)
2008 | Oro Universal. Space Gallery. San Francisco (USA)
2008 | Am 8-BITT. World of Wonder. Hollywood (USA)
2008 | LA Style 2. LA Contemporary. Culver City, California (USA)
2007 | « THANKS » with Frohawk 2-Feathers, Unitard gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2007 | LA Style. LA Contemporary. Culver City, California (USA)
2007 | « THE GRIND ». Foundation One Gallery. Atlanta (USA)
2006 | « SOUL SIGNIFICANCE ». Crewest Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2005 | SCION Installation2. Track 16 Gallery at Bergamot Station. Santa Monica (USA)
2005 | Greg Craola Simkins & Kofie One. FIFTY24SF Gallery. San Francisco (USA)
2004 | GRA(FF)ITE. Crewest Gallery. Alhambra (Spain)
2003 | « ASSEMBLAGE ». Indigo Flower. Santa Monica (USA)
2003 | Street Dreams. Ghetto Gloss Gallery. Silverlake, LA (USA)
2003 | « BEYOND GRAFFITI ». Headquarters Gallery. Hollywood (USA)
2003 | « AYER…STILL ALIVE ». Subject Matter Gallery. Costa Mesa (USA)
2002 | « HOTSYDUNK ». The Produce Department Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2002 | « ABSTRACT REALITY ». ICU Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
1990’s | Wild Wild West. ICU Art Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
SELECTED EXPERIENCES
2018 | Urvanity Art Fair . Swinton & Grant . Madrid (Espagne)
2017 | Art Basel : MIAMI
2017 | Urban Art Fair/ NYC . Jonathan Levine Projects. NYC (USA)
2017 | Urban Art Fair/ Paris. Galerie Open Space. Paris (France)
2016 | Above The Streets. Art Share LA .Los Angeles (USA)
2016 | Artist talk – Art Share LA .Los Angeles (USA)
2015 | Beyond Graffiti 2. A+D Museum. Los Angeles (USA)
2015 | Urban Art Biennale. World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks Museum. Völklingen (GER)
2014 | « SCRATCH? ». Getty Research Institute. ESMoA. El Segundo (USA)
2014 | Pow Wow Hawaii. Mural Intervention. Honolulu (HI)
2013 | Urban Art Biennale. World Cultural Heritage Site at the Völklingen Ironworks Museum. Völklingen (GER)
2012 | Mural installation. Picturin Festival. Torino (Italy)
2012 | Mural intervention & conference. Board Dripper Festival. Queretaro (Mexico)
2012 | Amplify Campus Mural intervention. Venice, California (USA)
2011 | Graffuturism. In Situ Installation. Art Basel at Miami (USA)
2011 | Street Cred. Pasadena Museum of California Art. Pasadena (USA)
2010 | Dreams Deferred. Artists respond to Immigration. The Chinese American Museum (CAM). Los Angeles
2010 | « HACE ». Duality. CB GALLERY. Los Angeles (USA)
2010 | Volta 6 Art Fair. The LA Art Machine (Switzerland)
2010 | Vox Humana. LA Art Show. LA Convention Center. Los Angeles (USA)
2009 | MANIFEST HOPE:DC. Washington (USA)
2007 | From La With Love Installation. A+D Museum. Los Angeles (USA)
2007 | « TEMPT ». URB Gallery. Culver City (USA)
2006 | « MOVEMENT ». Department of Cultural Affairs. KGB Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
2003 | LA LA LA: Design By Design And Not By Design. LA Architecture. Pacific Design Center. Los Angeles
2000 | Capital Art. Track 16, Bergamot Station. Santa Monica (USA)
2000 | SPIT & POLISH with Robbie Conal. Art Place Gallery. Los Angeles (USA)
1990’s | « MILLENNIUM ». Bergamot Station. Santa Monica (USA)
1990’s | Police Brutality Exhibit. Old County Jail. Los Angeles (USA)
1990’s | « JUSTICE? JUST US ». UCLA Wadswourth Theater. Westwood (USA)
1990’s | « ARTSPEAKS ». Vision Theater, Leimert Park. Los Angeles (USA)
