82 Time March 1/March 8, 2021
DUA LIPA
25 • Pop prodigy
BY KYLIE MINOGUE
Dua Lipa is a shining star,
blazing a dazzling trail through
the pop cosmos. Just under
four years ago, she released
the first of her two albums.
Today, she is dancing hand
in hand with the zeitgeist,
having carved with laser-
like precision her place in the
cultural landscape. I entered
Dua’s orbit last November
when I appeared as a guest
on her Studio 2054 streamed
concert. The production was
spectacular and inclusive,
somehow both future and retro,
with her instantly recognizable
voice stamped all over clever
songwriting. While I know what
it’s like to be in the eye of the
storm, on this occasion, I was
able to see the wider view from
the periphery. Her famous work
ethic radiated throughout the
production. “You have to work
hard to make a bit of luck,” her
father told her when she was
younger. It seems she listened.
Her achievements are all the
more remarkable given that
she is 25 years of age. She’s
kind, cool and smart. She’s a
bona fide pop behemoth. And
I, like millions of others, look
forward to more, and even
more, from La Lipa.
Minogue is a Grammy Award–
winning musical artist
AmoakoBoafo36 • Creative
resistanceAmoako Boafo is a rising art-
world superstar. The 36-year-
old Ghanian artist’s work,
characterized by bright colors
and textured finger painting,
highlights Black identity and the
African diaspora with complexity
and warmth: in the 2020
painting The Pink Background,
for example, two men lean into
each other as if posing for a
photo, both clad in suits and
standing before a rose-colored
backdrop. This distinctive style
has made him one of the world’s
most in-demand artists, and won
raves from Kehinde Wiley and
Kim Jones, the artistic director
of Dior Men, who launched
a collaboration with him in
2020, making Boafo the first
African artist to develop a line
with the French fashion house.
Perhaps just as significant is
Boafo’s staunch unwillingness
to being exploited by white
collectors now hungry for
Black creativity. Amid Boafo’s
meteoric rise, his work has often
been “flipped,” or resold quickly
at a much higher price—a
practice that can prevent artists
from profiting from the huge
windfalls of secondary sales. In
response, the artist has fought
to establish more control over
his work, both by buying it back
and through creating a studio
for local creatives in Accra.
As a result, Boafo has sparked
a larger dialogue about who
really profits when Black art is
handled by white gatekeepers.
—Cady Lang100 next