A Wiley Black Art

I am not a silly person in Life. I have never been a pine-rider or a person that feigns and fawns at a worked canvas but this is a person's work who I dig. It is because the work drives the word fusion to a place of contemporary understanding. Other than that I have been staying in the Adirondacks and can't wait to split :-/ If good news comes from either Toronto or New York City I will leave with the quickness, the swiftness and the rapidness. The bag is packed and I am cosmically praying that the Universe pays heed to my prayers. Part of this City is crazy in the old gypsy Transylvania sort of a way and the other part of it is too dumb to work towards any kind of concensus. A good friend of mine would say that Albany is the only city in the planet that has a Department of Redundancy Department.  

KW a modern master rooted in Harlem.

As a visualist and a provocateur of Art I have to say that Kehinde Wiley is one of the first painters of African-American ancestry to re-address the conversation of Black Art. He is creative enough to graciously give Jean-Michel Basquiat's work the appropriate time to rest and regroup within the pantheon of painters that have emerged from New York City.

His work goes beyond the over used dialogue that is found in in various Art Journals and Gallery Reviews. It goes beyond words like refreshing and clearly is an overstatement when using words like juxtaposition and verve. The vocabulary deliberately borrows letters from the annuls of the past (Titian) but does not clumsily enter into the world of visual plagiarism. His painting poses a muscularity that resembles nothing in contemporary Art today. It resonates a vocabulary that is tangible and the read, like good literature, extends beyond the wine and fromage that openings tend to be littered with.

Masters like Tiepolo share the same composite (read: makeup) but take their own direction due to their unique places in the global Art Continuum. The body of work that Mr. Wiley has produced does not shirk at this responsibility, in fact, he does the same as his historical cohorts. Figuratively he makes the reader/viewer re-addresses the syntax found in gesture. He makes us ask "What does it mean to see the body in repose, or the positions that one may associate with regalia, plenty, and might?"

His style has form and it has found a rhythm that lends itself to an open-minded audience and in all reality I really appreciate the wit and chemistry he produces @ paint and brush. To further your NYC Art vocabulary please visit www.kehindewiley.com
+JO.