Kehinde Wiley is a New York based painter from LA who is known for his bombastic portraits of black men as hip-hop aristocracy, dressed in their own street garb and crowned with Wiley's ornate patterns and golden frame. His photorealistic paintings show a portrait's historical ability to empower the disenfranchised, endowing a royal importance and street cred with his distinctive aesthetic (huffpost)
Art Examples
Death of Chatteron
Mary Little, Later Lady Carr, 2012
Three Graces, 2005
I think Kehinde's use of appropriation in art is extremely incredible. I like he's taken black people, particularly black men, and put them in a whole new light. He's put them in spots usually reserved for people and made them beautiful...human. I also love the painting, Death of Chatteron because it shows a black man surrounded by flowers but he stills shows masculinity. In a community where the fragility of hyper masculinity is rampant, it's important for images as such to exist.
