icon: kehinde wiley
Remember the scene in Love Jones where Nia Long says that Sonia Sanchez’s poetry makes her want to burn her book? Well LA born Kehinde Wiley will make you want to just perish the thought of becoming a serious painter after seeing his larger than life painstakingly detailed black man collages. Kehinde’s work is fiyah. And his concepts are simply breathtaking, dope and full of allure: take black men, paint them in heroic Napoleonic stances and mix the backgrounds with baroque and or African details. And yes he paints those backgrounds and the results are pure mastery. After earning his MFA from Yale Kehinde became an Artist in Residence with the Studio Museum in Harlem and the rest is history. His paintings now fetch a starting price of Twenty Grand.
GT can only imagine what this man will do with Barack’s Image. Iconic Indeed.
Posted by gt on December 2, 2008
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Alicia/InstantVintage — December 2, 2008 @ 2:04 am
Hot.Damn.
MFA? From Yale? He’s…wow.
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Dee — December 2, 2008 @ 9:26 am
I think I saw these a few years ago at the Brooklyn Museum. Love.
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ceecee — December 2, 2008 @ 10:19 am
i’ve heard so much about him
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ChocolateOrchid — December 2, 2008 @ 11:25 am
Wow!! This is my first time seeing these.
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TJ — December 2, 2008 @ 12:35 pm
I saw the portrait he did of Big Daddy Kane for the VH1 Hip Hop Honors. It was really nice.
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Simone — December 2, 2008 @ 12:49 pm
The Portrait of Kane is now in The Smithsonian Museum. A very talented young man. I love his juxtaposition btwn urban Black Men and Neo-Classical settings.
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mama's got moxie — December 3, 2008 @ 11:01 am
i saw some of his stuff a while ago and he is wonderfully talented.
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Bohemian Bookworm — December 3, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
Wowzers. This is awesome. As someone above me said, an MFA? From Yale? Just…wow.
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