Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley turns portraiture into power: Black and Brown figures take the poses once reserved for kings, generals, saints, and emperors.

Kehinde Wiley is an American portrait painter born in Los Angeles in 1977. He depicts Black and brown subjects in poses from European Old Master portraiture. In 2018, he painted President Obama's official portrait. He founded Black Rock Senegal in Dakar.

Monumental portraits that remix Old Master painting with contemporary Black identity, street style, floral patterns, and heroic scale.

Wiley rewrites art history from inside its own visual language: the pose, the frame, the grandeur — but with new protagonists.

His works are held by major museums including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Brooklyn Museum, VMFA, and others.

Wiley often uses poses from European masters, but replaces the historical elite with people he finds through “street casting” — turning everyday presence into visual royalty.