Occupation: Painter Birth: 1977
At age 20 I went to go find my father in Nigeria. And after much toil, I finally figured out exactly where he was. And there's something about seeing….
I'd like to walk that fine line between the authentic artist self and the manufactured artist self. I'd like to exist outside of a set of expectation….
There's always a joy in newness as a painter, and in sub-Saharan Africa, I encountered different realities with regard to light and how it bounces ac….
I think, something that you might be able to locate in the work that I'm creating today: the ability to look at a black America as something that not….
I enjoy Chicago as one of the great American cities. When I come here and take a taxi from the airport, I meet a young man from Somalia. I meet a you….
Your best as an artist is to create something that resonates for you..
I studied shades, textures by painting after the Old Masters, the classical European paintings, as part of my educational process..
I think that gave rise to the type of practice that I - that I do now. I think it was informed by a very Marxist almost "use-value"-driven investigat….
While I can hire out the portrait, I don't, because it's just - that's where I shine. You know, that's my blood sport..
I like to play with the conventions around what we expect of paintings historically. But I also like to play with the conventions that you expect fro….
I was surrounded by art by virtue of not only the educational opportunities that my mother's foresight availed me to..
I've met others [people] who simply responded to me, "You're Kehinde Wiley. I know your work. I saw it at the Brooklyn Museum [Brooklyn, NY] And I'd ….
This is - it's a sociological experiment in many ways. And so you're seeing the results of what happens when you put a lot of boys in a room looking ….
It was something that came sort of matter-of-factually. Because there - it's like really - real honest engagement with the people around me and just ….
In the end I'm in love with it [Western European easel painting]. And that's where a lot of the influence from the work comes from..
The artists ultimately respond to the public..
That should be something that an artist can respond to as well in terms of a painting..
I think that once you're able to sort of get in line with who and how you relate to the world, you'll become closer to this index that I'm referring ….
So much of my work is defined by the difference between the figure in the foreground and the background. Very early in my career, I asked myself, "Wh….
One of the weirdest things that happened to artists and art criticism was this moment when everyone got cynical and stopped believing in the ability ….
It's a culture. It's - I mean, people obsess over this. And people create subcultures that identify - and there are people in the streets who will re….