Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977, US) is best known for his monumental portraits that feature African American sitters in the settings of European paintings from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. In 2017, he was commissioned to paint the portrait of former president Barack Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, a work that received wide critical acclaim. As a gay Black man, Wiley has deliberately repositioned Black male bodies, challenging societal stereotypes of violence or aggression with images emphasizing their vulnerability and sensuality. 

Launched in 2020, the Kehinde Wiley Shop began as a partnership between Kehinde Wiley and Black Rock Senegal to create limited-edition apparel and merchandise featuring a selection of the artist’s personal favorite compositions from his archive that would support Black Rock Senegal, the non-profit artist-in-residence program founded by Wiley in Dakar, Senegal in 2019. Conceived, curated, and created for those who desire art and color in their lives, this collection offers a new opportunity to engage with Wiley’s bold and beautiful paintings while supporting Black Rock’s mission: to bring together artists, thinkers and innovators from around the world; to offer a platform for these artists to engage in cross-cultural and multi-disciplinary creative processes; and to build new global discourses about Africa and the African-Diaspora.

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