Kehinde Wiley's Life and Work
Kehinde was born in Los Angeles, CA of 1977. He is a New York based portrait painter. His mom enrolled him in an art school in Russia at the age of 12. He recieved his BFA from the Art Institute of San Francisco in 1999 and earned his MFA two years later from Yale University. Wiley uses photographs of young men he sees on the streets and bases his portraits off them.
The picture above is my favorite portait of Wiley's that I've found, it's so different and he's tied so many different things into it. The horse, victorian background and rocks look really historic. The bottom left rock has "Hannibal" written on it, which is part of early Roman history. I find it different because it looks like he pulled contemporary materials into it as well. The man has camouflage on and a white bandana wrapped around his head; it looks to be a watch around his wrist also.