Ghanaian-born Kasen Midichi has always found art as the easiest way to express himself. Initially discouraged by understandings of art as work for “lazy people” within his community, he re-discovered his love for creating visual magic when a friend asked him to create a piece for a store.
His paintings portray celebrities, public figures and well-known artists – people he thinks made it to the top within their specific field. In his painting one can identify who he is portraying, but the red skin and big eyes make the work recognizably Midichi, creating a sense of the familiar yet unfamiliar. In explaining to me his obsession with reading and watching biographies about those he considers the best in their fields, he also confessed that he has always wanted to be associated with that greatness. As a way to do this he inserts Midichi at the end names of the figures that he paints in the titles of this works.
As a man who enjoys literary indulgences, he is currently working on a painting inspired by the line “I’m like everybody else: weak, full of mistakes, but basically good” from the book This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz. In the same way that readers create images of characters in their minds, Midichi is trying to transfer these words into a visual language. “When I read a line that intrigues me, I want to paint that scene of how I see it in my head regardless of what the author had in mind,” Midichi explains.
Go to Midichi’s Instagram page to check out more of his work and to keep an eye out for his website.
