Bio
 Born in Los Angeles,
CA, 1977
 Currently resides in
New York City, and
Beijing, China
 Received a Bachelor
of Fine Arts from
San Francisco Art
Institute in 1999
 Received a Masters
in Fine Arts from
Yale University
School of Art
Influences

His mother


Elements of 80’s hip-hop
culture


Kept him busy and out of
the hood
Violence, anti-social
behavior, streets on fire
Education



Influenced by realism
As an undergrad really
honed his technical skills
In grad school he focused
on arguments
surrounding identity,
gender and sexuality,
painting as a political act,
and questions of postmodernity (Wiley, 2013)
Influences continued
 Classical European
paintings of noblemen,
royalty and aristocrats.
 Trained by copying
masterworks
Work

Kehinde Wiley is a portrait painter.

Juxtaposes urban black and brown
men with a traditional style of
portraiture.

Wiley’s figurative paintings “quote
historical sources and position young
black men within the field of power.”
(Wiley, 2013)

“Hijacking – or appropriating, to use
the art world-approved term – the
format of old master altarpieces and
three-quarter-length portraits, he
likened the notorious opulence of
successful hip-hop artists to that of
European artistocrats.” (Schwendener,
2012)
Style
 Unique style
 Backgrounds are usually
made up.
 Inspired by the culture of
the person he is painting
 Backgrounds rob painting
of sense of location.
 Backgrounds generally
comprised of decorative
objects, or textiles.
Media
 Oil paint on canvas
 Generally large scale
compositions
 Decorative hand carved
wooden frames.
 Use emblems borrowed
from culture to
represent identity of
figure
“Down” Series
 Series of paintings
 Classical nude poses
 Black male figures
 Decorative
backgrounds
“The World Stage”
 This series features youth in
Nigeria, Senegal, Brazil,
China, India, and Sri Lanka.
 Chose locations based on
taking notice on where the
world is at that specific
moment.
 Culture and identity are the
focus of his work in this
series.
 Found recurring theme of
black culture in each society
he travelled to.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feat
ure=player_embedded&v=Nq8YrSe7mc#!
Portrait Juxtaposition
 Students create self portrait
 Juxtapose modern society with classical pose.
 Background should represent the identity of student.
 Influenced by culture student chooses.