Aplerh-Doku Borlabi
b. 1987, Ghana
A graduate of Ghanatta College of Art and Design, Aplerh-Doku Borlabi’s early works applied his foundational learning in academic painting and creating naturalistic compositions. In 2020, after years of grappling to find a visual language that felt authentic, he turned to his natural environment. It was in the Cocoa Beach area, where he grew up, that his artistic relationship with the coconut began. Using coconut sheath to create the skin of the figures in his portraits he found a way to embody his own culture and ethnic identity into his practice. The coconut tree and fruit is now part of the artist’s daily visual experience. From a distance, the mixed media works of oil paint and coconut husk on canvas, appear as richly toned brown skin. The intrinsic properties of the coconut sheath’s multiple layers, longhairs, and varying shades of brown whimsically renders skin texture and bone structure, while emulating the way natural light surfaces on skin. With one medium, the artist was able to capture the physical colour complexities of black people’s skin, and visually narrate the physical organic connections of humanity, and plant life. Metaphorically, the coconut sheath contemplates the tension between what is disregarded, discarded, and deemed ugly, and what is natural, strong, complex, multidimensional, and beautiful. Echoing prideful statements, such a Black is Beautiful, Borlabi captures the joy of the human experience lived in Black people globally, Ghana, and the continent at large. Numerous key galleries and museums such as Marianne Boesky Gallery, NY Chelsea (507 W) have featured Borlabi's work in the past. The artist’s first piece to be offered at auction was ‘Coiffure’ at Sotheby's London in 2022.