Kehinde Wiley Bio

Kehinde Wiley (born February 28, 1977) is a portrait painter based in New York City. He is known for his realistic portraits of contemporary Black subjects that heavily reference paintings by the “Old Masters.” Wiley received a BFA from San Francisco Art Institute in 1999 and an MFA from Yale University in 2001. In 2017, he was commissioned to paint the portrait of President Barack Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Wiley’s work has been featured in exhibitions worldwide, and his paintings are included in the permanent collections of many museums, including the Brooklyn Museum, Columbus Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, LACMA, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Seattle Museum of Art, the Studio Museum of Harlem, among others.

Artist Statement