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February 28, 1977
Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Contributor
Hailing from South Central LA, Wiley may have come a long way from his roots in the hood, but he has never lost sight of them. Like the countless who have come before him, Wiley is obsessed with portraiture. But unlike the masters that have preceded him, he does one thing distinctly different: he paints people of color.
Wiley grew up attending all the best museums Los Angeles has to offer. Wandering around LACMA in particular, Wiley noticed from a young age something members of the art world have conveniently ignored for a while: there are practically no people of color on the walls of our museums! Ever since, Wiley has been a man on a mission.
Wiley tackles issues around race, sociopolitical power, and the limited scope of art history. He describes what he does as “intervention”, and that he “quotes historical sources and positions young black men within the field of power.” So he is pretty much rewriting white history with black men and women, hey, whatever brings diversity into the art world is okay by me.
“If black lives matter, they deserve to be in paintings” Wiley once said, and the people seem to agree. Since Wiley hit the art world, he has become one of the wealthiest living artists and is arguably the most successful black artist since Basquiat. People love Wiley, but not just for his paintings. He has a bombastic personality and a killer sense of style to say the least. He has been known to rock zebra print suits from time to time.
He also has a pretty interesting way of recruiting his models. When it's time to make a new painting, Wiley takes to the streets of Harlem and looks for someone who exudes an air of the alpha male. He always brings a lady along with him though so the men he approaches do not end up feeling as though Wiley has some homoerotic ulterior motives. Additionally, he keeps a wedding ring on his left hand (even though he is single), to add to this illusion that there is no funny business going on. He then asks his models to chose a picture from books on Old Master paintings and pose in the same position for a photo. The rest is history, or well, however Wiley chooses to rewrite it.
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Kehinde Wiley (born February 28, 1977) is an American portrait painter based in New York City. He is known for his naturalistic paintings of Black people that reference the work of Old Master paintings. In 2017, Wiley was commissioned to paint former President Barack Obama's portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. The Columbus Museum of Art hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007 and describes his paintings as "heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture."
Wiley was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People of 2018.
Check out the full Wikipedia article about Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde gets it. God gave us colors and giant canvases, so we should use them to maximum effect. I have never seen a Kehinde Wiley painting that failed to inspire me. Everything he paints is awesome. Five stars.
One of the most fun and vibrant living artists. You have to see his stuff in person to appreciate the scale of some of his pieces. Plus he has a compound in Senegal, so extra points for that. And, like Sartle editors Angelica and Tania, he went to San Francisco Art institute, so additional points. I dislike most art from living artists, but I his stuff.