Born in 1972, Stoger studied with D.A. Jasper, his older brother. Named for his smooth and rhythmic excellence on the dance floor (a stoger in local parlance). Hyper realistic detailed style often combined with more gestural brush strokes in rippling clothing. His imagination-driven posters likely to lean toward an abundance of action-based imagery. Formal spatial orientation a non-issue. Can use exacting detail both to flaunt his technical ability and to tell “his” version of a movie. Talented sign writer. Paints almost exclusively on commercial canvas. Creates electrified borders on figures to give explosive quality to his already almost 3D renderings. Prolific and confident. Unafraid to overpower the canvas with exceedingly energetic imagery. Bullet contrails, a fire-belching landscape all in a day’s work. Fur and fire equally irregular and exuberant in their composition and obsessive detail are his hallmarks. Likes a blue hue. Painted movie posters from the early mid-1990s until nearly 2000. He was arguably the last of the Golden Age poster painters to give up his work.

EXHIBITIONS:

1993: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

1996: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica 

1999: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2001: “Death-Stalking Sleep-Walking Barbarian Ninja Terminators: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana”, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, Los Angeles, (voted best exhibition of 2001 by LA Weekly)

2001 – 2002: “Extreme Canvas: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2003: Seven from Ghana, Sundance Film Festival, Park City, UT January 2003

2003: “Outrageous Supercharge: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana”, MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA

2004: “Africa Screams”, Iwalewa-Haus Afrikazentrum der Universitat Bayreuth, 2004

Traveled to Vienna November 2004 – February 2005

2006: “Extreme Canvas”, Center for African American Culture, Pittsburgh, PA

2006: “Serpents, Mermaids and Action Heroes”, Parkland College Art Gallery, Champaign, IL

2007:  “Black Like We”, Feldman-Horn Gallery, Harvard-Westlake School, North Hollywood, CA

2008: “Extreme Canvas: Hand Painted Movie Posters from Ghana”, ArcLight Cinemas Hollywood, CA

2009: “Out of Africa: Obama and McCain Praise Portraits and Visual Narratives”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles; Reviewed in the Los Angeles Times on May 21, 1999, by art critic David Pagel

2009: “No This Is It: Michael Jackson, 25 Years of Praise Portraits”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles  

2012: “Michael Jackson in the After-Life: Praise Portraits and Commentary Paintings from Ghana”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2013: “Wow Women”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2013: “The Horror The Horror!”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, curated by Brandon Boyd

2013: “Viva Mandela!”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2014: “Knock Off – Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana”, Guggenheim Gallery, Chapman University, Orange, CA

2014: “Ghana Pop”, Ernie Wolfe Gallery, Los Angeles

2014: Continental Convergence: Hand-Painted Martial Arts Posters from Ghana, Mandarin Plaza, Chinatown, Los Angeles

2016: Kung Fu in Africa: Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana (1985-1999), Hanart TZ, Hong Kong

2017 - 2018: Ghana Paints Hollywood: Hand Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT curated by Ernie Wolfe III

2019 – 2020, Baptized by Beefcake: The Golden Age of Hand Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Poster House, New York, NY co-curated by Ernie Wolfe III and Angelina Lippert 

PUBLICATIONS:

 2009: African Arts, Volume 42, number 3, 20, Autumn 2009, “The Radiance of the King”, Don Cosentino 

2012: Extreme Canvas 2: The Golden Age of Hand-Painted Movie Posters from Ghana, Ernie Wolfe III, Kesho/Malaika Press, 2012