AMERICAN, b. 1977

Kehinde Wiley is a New York City-based portrait painter who is known for his highly naturalistic paintings of African-Americans in heroic poses. The Columbus Museum of Art, which hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007, describes his work with the following: “Wiley has gained recent acclaim for his heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture. Wiley has been commissioned to produce a portrait of former U.S. president Barack Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. He and Amy Sherald are the first black artists to make official presidential portraits for the National Portrait Gallery.