A portraitist whose subjects are all in her head The artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye at Tate Modern in London, Oct. 30, 2020. A major new exhibition at Tate Britain in London puts the spotlight on Yiadom-Boakye, an artist who paints enigmatic Black characters of her own invention. Adama Jalloh/The New York Times. by Siddhartha Mitter (NYT NEWS SERVICE) .- British artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is a committed painter of people. Every piece she shows is, on first impression, a portrait a careful study of one person, or, at most, a small group, with little to distract from their presence and force. Yet whenever she starts work, in her East London studio, she is alone. Her subjects are not living individuals, but characters sprung from her mind.