Kojo Griffin

b. June 1971 in Farmville, Virginia

Kojo Griffin is a s elf-taught artist who received his BA in psychology at Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. His work was exhibited in the Whitney Biennial 2000 at the Whitney Museum of American Art and Freestyle at The Studio Museum in Harlem, 2001, both shows were in New York.  He has had solo exhibitions at Cheekwood Museum in Nashville, TN; Tubman African American Museum in Macon, GA; and the Mint Museum of Art in Charlotte, NC. Griffin places his figures, with human-like bodies and animal heads, in the midst of real-life situations involving unresolved emotions of grief, alienation, abuse, rejection and neglect. His anthropomorphic figures are at once playful in form and pained in emotion, often facing acts of violence, acting out in rage, or dealing with loss. Griffin’s work reveals universal behavior and disarms the viewer’s ability to judge the character’s racial identity or social status. Griffin had a solo exhibition at MOCA GA in 2003, "Kojo Griffin: At Work" in which the public was invited to view the artist and his progress over the course of six weeks. It provided a unique opportunity for the artist to produce work not confined by the size limitations of a canvas and was the first occasion to create an installation in an entire exhibition space.

Kojo Griffin

Untitled (Group Scene), 1999

Mixed media on wood panel

18 x 19 inches

Gift of David S. Golden

Accession #2001.215

Founding Collection

Kojo Griffin

Untitled, 2002

Graphite, pastel and crayon on paper

20.5 x 25.250 inches30 x 33.75 inches framed

Gift of Kojo Griffin

Accession #2002.002