Kehinde Wiley’s highly naturalistic paintings of contemporary urban men and more recently women adopt heroic poses directly referencing classical 17th and 18th Century British portraiture. ‘The World Stage’, Wiley’s vast and celebrated body of work, has previously focused on Brazil, China, Israel, Nigeria, Senegal and Sri Lanka, with exhibitions held in museums and galleries in Europe and the USA. Wiley engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic, and sublime in his representation of urban black and brown men and women found throughout the world. Wiley’s work has been exhibited at museums around the world, including a major solo exhibition, Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, organized by the Brooklyn Museum in 2015. Wiley’s work is in the permanent collections of numerous prominent institutions worldwide.
[excerpted from Stephen Friedman Gallery website]
© kehinde wiley