Kehinde Wiley

Kehinde Wiley is a famous gay African-American artist. As a kid, he didn’t see a lot of diversity in the paintings in museums. Now, as an adult, he aims to create more diversity. He is the first African-American to paint a portrait of the president.

One of my favorite pieces of art that he created is his painting of Barack Obama. In this painting, Obama is depicted sitting down in an elaborate wooden chair, surrounded by flowers. The flowers are both symbolic and beautiful. There are jasmine flowers from where he was born (Hawaii), blue lilies to represent his father, and chrysanthemums for where Barack Obama met Michelle Obama in Chicago. The flowers aren’t just in the background, but grow around Obama and his chair. Something that I think is cool is that Obama seems to hover above the ground, while the bottoms of his chair legs sink into the greenery.

Kehinde Wiley isn’t just famous for his painting of Obama, however. He is also known for his unique style of not just keeping the flowers in the background. As mentioned before, Kehinde Wiley paints the flowers so they curl around the person in the portrait. He is also famous for painting Black people around his neighborhood. The people in his paintings usually are posed like European paintings of people. For example, he painted a portrait of his partner, Craig Fletcher, posed like a painting of Saint John the Baptist. Kehinde Wiley lives in New York and Beijing, China.