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Velázquez,
Titian, Gainsborough, Tiepolo, and David as re-imagined through
the eyes of a son of South Central LA, transformed and
transfigured to reveal an alternate history of art, a concept both
daring and virtuosic. Kehinde
Wiley
has been one to watch for some time, his rise in the art world
meteoric, a (re-)interpreter of myths who has taken traditional
and often iconic historical images of European saints, kings and
burghers, and recast them into large bold colorful paintings of
African-American men posed as the originals. This time he's
doing the same thing, but with digital photography. Deitch
Projects
in Soho is currently showing Black Light -- 17 of the artist's
neo-realist digital photographs (through this Saturday, September
26). The young models (literally handpicked from Fulton
Mall) were asked to select a classical art-historical reference
and to pose in their likeness. The photographs also mimic
Wiley's painterly interest in textiles and wallpaper design, here
digitally added after the fact. We
have always loved Wiley's use of textile and patterns -- they add
a certain softness, aestheticize what otherwise might be mere
posturing. He plays with figure and background, intertwining
both, each complementing the other. Hip-hop
attitude in clothes, Old Master poses, all bathed in a wonderful,
almost classical, light. Color,
scale, pattern, and form together owing a debt to pop art but
Wiley's work also brings something radically new to contemporary
art-- a bold interjection -- and this with an independence
of spirit and mind. Wiley has said: "…any
artist who ties himself down to any sort of religious, gender,
sexuality, or class obligations is making really uninteresting
work. I'm beholden to no one." See:
Kehinde
Wiley: Black Light, Deitch Projects Explore:
KehindeWiley.com
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