Portland, OR - On May 5, the Portland Art Museum presents seven recent monumental allegory-inspired portraits by Kehinde Wiley.  Drawn from private collections across the country, the provocative works mine deeply rooted traditions of Western painting to address prevailing social stereotypes and the cultural constructions of identity as manifested in dress, gesture, and gender.  Marrying historical tropes of religious and secular portraiture from the Renaissance to the 19th century with images of young African-American males from urban hip-hop culture, Wiley aestheticizes contemporary forms of masculine beauty, while questioning historical style as a manifestation of outside power.  On exhibit until 19 August, 2007.

Wiley’s ornately framed paintings incorporate historical themes and motifs, in the time-honored artistic tradition of appropriation, also known today in music as sampling. Surrounded by Renaissance or Baroque motifs and wearing urban hip-hop clothing, the subjects address the viewer with nobility and confidence, simultaneously recalling images from religious iconography, royal portraiture, and rap culture. Wiley surrounds his very modern subjects with the conventions of European past, addressing the history of power, patronage, and the quest for prestige.

Bruce Guenther, Chief Curator and Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, said, “This is a tremendous opportunity for Portland audiences to see the work of one of America’s most exciting young artists whose paintings—illuminated by a superb hyper-real technique—incorporate complex art historical references and address both timeless and current issues of style, class, prejudice, and dignity.”

Born in 1977 in Los Angeles, Wiley graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute and Yale University, and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.  His work is in public collections nationally, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, the Denver Art Museum, and the Studio Museum of Harlem.  His work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at the 2006 Whitney Biennial and a one-person exhibition at the Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio.

This is the sixth installation in the Miller Meigs Contemporary Art series organized by Bruce Guenther, and supported by the Miller Meigs Endowment for the Contemporary Arts. This series of exhibitions celebrates new ideas, artists, and mediums.  Since 2005, the series has featured the works of Sophie Calle, Roxy Paine, Richard Rezac, Pierre Huyghe, Damien Hirst, and now Kehinde Wiley.

About the Portland Art Museum

The seventh oldest museum in the United States, and the oldest on the West Coast, the Portland Art Museum is internationally recognized for its permanent collection and ambitious special exhibitions drawn from the Museum’s holdings and the world’s finest public and private collections.  The Museum’s collection of 40,000 objects, displayed in 112,000 square feet of galleries, reflects the history of art from ancient times to today.  The collection is distinguished for its holdings of arts of the native peoples of North America, English silver, and the graphic arts.  An active collecting institution, dedicated to preserving great art for the enrichment of future generations, the Museum dedicates 90 percent of its galleries to its permanent collection.  The Museum’s campus of landmark buildings, a cornerstone of Portland’s cultural district, includes the Jubitz Center for Modern and Contemporary Art, the Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts, the Schnitzer Center for Northwest Art, the Northwest Film Center, and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Center for Native American Art. With a membership of 22,000 households and serving more than 350,000 visitors annually, the Museum is a premier venue for education in the visual arts.  For information on exhibitions and programs, call 503.226.2811 or visit portlandartmuseum.org