Kofi Kayiga (born December 1943),[1] formerly known as Ricardo Wilkins,[2] is a Jamaican-born artist and educator, who migrated to the US, after periods spent in the UK and Uganda.

[9][10] In the words of the art historian Petrine Archer-Straw, "Kayiga’s work is concerned with origins, 'primitive'in the sense of exploring the essence of human consciousness and its links with spirituality.

To access this deeper understanding of the self, Kofi strips himself of his formal training and approaches his subject matter intuitively and even mystically, recovering images from deepest memory and the subconscious.

Unlike the many artists creating during this era who were inspired by the repatriation message of Garvey and Rastafari, Kayiga's world is not one of idealism mediated through the diaspora experience.

Instead, he is the only artist who channeled a first-hand experience of Africa into his work, resulting in an immediacy and directness that consists of bold strokes, vibrant colour fields and symbolic language.