Black Lives Reimagined in Kehinde Wiley's Art

Artist Kehinde Wiley talks about his current exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Wiley's signature portraits of everyday men and women riff on specific paintings by Old Masters, replacing the European aristocrats depicted in those paintings with contemporary black subjects, drawing attention to the absence of African Americans from historical and cultural narratives. The works presented in Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic raise questions about race, gender, and the politics of representation. The exhibition includes an overview of the artist’s prolific fourteen-year career and features sixty paintings and sculptures. The exhibit runs through May 24, 2015.

Conspicuous Fraud Series #1, Eminence, Kehinde Wiley

(The Studio Museum in Harlem; Museum Purchase made possible by a gift from Anne Ehrenkranz)

Anthony of Padua, Kehinde Wiley

(Seattle Art Museum, gift of the Contemporary Collectors Forum, Washington)

Kehinde Wiley Installation

(Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum)