Visual artist
Gerda Boateng is a Ghanaian-Canadian visual artist. Her art is centred around empowering women of colour and displaying the essence of their natural beauty. Gerda has been motivated to create representation for marginalized communities, to highlight and uplift people of colour, minorities, disabled individuals, and indigenous people, by designing concepts that showcase the fact that beauty is more than skin deep. She combines her design and self-taught illustration skills to create art that is both unique and practical.
Gerda came to Canada at the age of six. Throughout her upbringing, there were moments where she was made to feel inadequate. Bullied in school, she was either too dark, or her lips were too full. She struggled to find representation of anything that looked like her to build her self-confidence. It seemed the world only noticed black girls and boys when it had something negative to say.
In 2018 Gerda started her own practical art business, Gerda Creates. With Gerda Creates all the negative moments she experienced transform into positives. The concept of ‘too dark’ simply doesn’t exist. Everything she was bullied for or ridiculed about is celebrated as beautiful. With Gerda Creates, POC are the main characters.
Gerda has been given the opportunity to design digital art projects for major brands and has also collaborated on creative murals in Toronto and Brampton.
Self-Journey
Short haired black woman, in a white sheer gown, surrounded by abstract depictions of leaves and vines, with the moon illuminating the dark sky.