Cultured magazine profiles Ghanaian-American artist Maud Acheampong, age 27, as part of its 2025 Young Artists list. Before their first solo show, Acheampong gained hundreds of thousands of TikTok followers through theatrical videos performed as Dainty Funk, a digital avatar and drag persona. Their work explores surveillance, monstrousness, and existential themes, with a recent live performance piece, "A Yawn, A Scream, An Endless Opening of the Mouth" (2025), presented at the Marshak Planetarium at City College of New York. The artist describes a hypothetical $150,000 project involving an obsidian dome in Ghana, ritual dance, and 3D-scanned footprints.
The profile matters because it highlights how a young artist leverages social media to build a following before traditional gallery representation, while creating conceptually rich, site-specific performances that bridge digital and physical spaces. Acheampong's work reflects broader trends in contemporary art: the use of drag personas, engagement with Afrofuturism and ritual, and the integration of personal narrative with cosmic and existential themes. The article also underscores Cultured's role in spotlighting emerging talent.