Kehinde Wiley is a leading young American painter, famous for his portraits weaving urban culture, hip-hop, and contemporary design with the classical paintings of the late Renaissance period. UCCA will present his work to China for the first time this March. With a studio in both New York and Beijing, Wiley's portraits place black and brown urban young men from around the world in poses from famous art historical works of their respective cultures. This past year, Wiley worked together with Sportlifestyle brand PUMA to gather inspiration from Africa and help celebrate the upcoming World Cup to be held in South Africa. Wiley painted a series of four paintings creating a team united despite political borders: he painted three portraits of Africa's most decorated football stars, and a fourth entitled Unity of the three players posed together.
Born in Los Angeles in 1977, Kehinde Wiley received his MFA from Yale University School of Art. Kehinde Wiley is now one of America’s leading painters. He reinvents the painting style of the great portraitist masters of the past, blurring the boundaries between traditional and contemporary, and between high and low culture, to combine modern elements in a classic, epic technique.
Young black and brown men from around the world are the subjects for his work. Wiley's portraits place these young urban males into familiar poses from classical art, allowing them to exist in their urban dress in front of his contemporary design backdrops. Wiley uses his distinct identity within a political context to create a painting style that is completely his own.
His first name, Kehinde, is the Yoruba word for 'second born of twins.' A name also suggestive of his relationship with Africa, self described as "one of searching and longing." Wiley was born to a Nigerian father and African-American mother. Knowing little of his father, he was raised by his single mother in Los Angeles. At age twenty, he visited Nigeria in hopes of rediscovering his African roots. He met his father and painted a series of portraits of him. In 2007, Wiley again returned to create portraits of Africa's urban youth. In 2008, under the title "The World Stage: Africa Lagos-Dakar," his series debuted at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. This established the then 32-year-old as a leading American artist, and his work drew much attention from major galleries around the world.
Over the past two years, Wiley developed this project, choosing different cities as locations for temporary studios, and engaged in local dialogue. The works in the "World Stage" series are all products of his peregrinations. China was the first stop on Wiley's tour. He established a studio in Beijing and began his project with a study of propaganda art of the Cultural Revolution.
On a separate project, Wiley travelled through Africa this last year with PUMA sponsored football stars; Samuel Eto'o of Cameroon, John Mensah of Ghana and Emmanuel Eboué of the Ivory Coast. After which, Wiley painted three individual portraits of each player. He also painted a fourth Unity Portrait of all three players together, symbolizing the united countries of Africa to celebrate the 2010 World Cup to be held in South Africa.
On March 21st, UCCA along with PUMA will host a Children’s workshop to create and explore the inspiration that comes from Wiley’s works. That afternoon, Wiley will give an Artist Talk at UCCA, meeting with his Chinese art fans. During the exhibition, a vibrant new PUMA African Motion line inspired by Kehinde Wiley's works will be available in the UCCASTORE.
