#kehinde wiley

[itscolossal]

Cuba and the Carnivalesque Takes Center Stage in Kehinde Wiley’s New Portrait Series ‘HAVANA’

[mysterei]

Installation view of Kehinde Wiley: An Archeology of Silence, de Young museum, San Francisco, 2023.

[fatchance]

Detail from Marechal Floriano Peixoto (fromThe World Stage: Brazil Series) by Kehinde Wiley, 2009, oil on canvas. Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona.

[jadeseadragon]

Kehinde Wiley (Nigerian-American, b.1977), Portrait of Melissa Thompson (detail), 2020, oil on linen.

Ms. Thompson in front of her portrait.

[supersonicart]

Kehinde Wiley's "HAVANA"

Kehinde Wiley, renowned for his large-scale oil portraits that reinterpret European painting traditions by prominently featuring Black and Brown individuals, once again challenges conventional narratives in his latest collection titled HAVANA, currently showcased at Sean Kelly in New York. Wiley's unique style typically involves vibrant backgrounds and positing his subjects in grand, colorful patterns. He drew inspiration from two trips to Cuba, in 2015 and 2022, exploring the vibrant, festive spirit present in many global celebrations like Mardi Gras.

In this collection, Wiley captures the diverse, creative personalities of his subjects adorned in bright clothing and accessories. He articulates that despite their differing experiences, a common thread that binds them is the economic impact of America on Cuba – a relationship steeped in fascination, suspicion, intrigue, and cultural significance. His work also pays homage to influential artists such as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Pablo Picasso, and Alexander Calder, who examined similar themes during the early 20th century. Through depicting acrobats, dancers, and musicians, Wiley explores Cuba's political history, economic struggles, and the relentless quest for artistic liberty, using the spectacle of circuses and carnivals as a platform for celebration, disruption, and self-expression.

THE SUPERSONIC ART SHOP | FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM

[poliwait]

Three Wise Men Greeting Entry into Lagos, 2008. Kehinde Wiley.

[artschoolglasses]

Equestrian Portrait of the Count-Duke Olivares, Kehinde Wiley, 2005

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Kehinde Wiley (American, b. 1977) St. Dionysus

[weepingwidar]

Kehinde Wiley (American, 1977) - Portrait of Malak Lunsford II (2023)

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Kehinde Wiley. twitter.com

[pazzesco]

Kehinde Wiley - The Young Tarentine (Mamadou Gueye), after Alexandre Schoenewerk, 1871, 2021, bronze

Kehinde Wiley - Femme Piquée par un Serpent (Mamadou Gueye), 2022.

Kehinde Wiley - The Death of Hyacinth (Ndey Buri Mboup), 2022

Kehinde Wiley - "Morpheus (Ndeye Fatou Mbaye)", 2022.

Kehinde Wiley - An Archaeology of Silence

An Archaeology of Silence is the namesake of this piece, arguably the most breathtaking of the collection. For whiteness in general and white America specifically, the piece is a mirror, an entanglement of glory and suffering, discovery and erasure, settlement and displacement. For Indigenous and Black America it is a symbol of futures that allow us to look to the past to move forward. It is a relic of our origin story, an artifact of our epistemology, and where should it live if not in museums? Where else could our suffering be looked upon with honor and quiet reflection, with reverence and respect?

Kehinde Wiley - Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos, 2021, after John Vanderlyn, 1825

John Vanderlyn - Ariadne Asleep on the Island of Naxos, 1825

Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, Los Angeles) is an American artist best known for his portraits that render people of color in the traditional settings of European Old Master paintings. Wiley’s work brings art history face-to-face with contemporary culture, using the visual rhetoric of the heroic, the powerful, the majestic and the sublime to celebrate Black and Brown people the artist has met throughout the world. Working in the mediums of painting, sculpture, and video, Wiley’s portraits challenge and reorient art-historical narratives, awakening complex issues that many would prefer to remain muted.

n 2018, Wiley became the first African American artist to paint an official US presidential portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery after former US president Barack Obama selected Wiley for this honor. In 2019 Wiley founded Black Rock Senegal, a multidisciplinary artist-in-residence program that invites artists from around the world to live and create work in Dakar, Senegal.

Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley - The Three Graces, 2005

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[arinewman7]

Sainte Lucie

Kehinde Wiley

acrylic on canvas, in artist’s frame, 2005

[terminusantequem]

Kehinde Wiley (American, b. 1977), Femme Piquée par un Serpent (Mamadou Gueye), 2022. Oil on canvas, 335 x 762 cm

[annemarieyeretzian]

[fantastic-creatures]

Kehinde Wiley