Statement:

This is something that, as artists, we constantly deal with - throwing away the past, slaying the father, and creating the new.

Biography:

Kehinde Wiley was born in L.A. in 1977. His portraits of African American men collate modern culture with the influence of Old Masters. Incorporating a range of vernaculars culled from art historical references, Wiley’s work melds a fluid concept of modern culture, ranging from French Rococo to today’s urban landscape. Vividly colorful and often adorned with ornate gilded frames, Wiley’s large-scale figurative paintings, which are illuminated with a barrage of baroque or rococo decorative patterns, posit young black men, fashioned in urban attire, within the field of power reminiscent of Renaissance artists such as Tiepolo and Titian. The artist reside in New York and Beijing. Artist website.