[Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five by Kehinde Wiley, 2005]

Kehinde Wiley, one of our favorite painters, will be showing some pieces at The Studio Museum in Harlem through October 26, 2008.

From The Studio Museum Harlem’s website:

Kehinde Wiley is known for his stylized paintings of young, urban African-American men in poses borrowed from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European figurative paintings, a practice he started in the early 2000s while an artist in residence at the Studio Museum. Over the last two years, Wiley has expanded his project by living and working abroad; he temporarily relocates to different countries and opens satellite studios to become familiar with local culture, history and art. His Gra“The World Stage” series is the result of these travels.

Wiley’s first trip was to China, where he placed his models in poses based on Chinese propaganda art from the Cultural Revolution. The World Stage: Africa, Lagos ~ Dakar, organized by Christine Y. Kim, features paintings from Wiley’s next stops, Senegal and Nigeria. For this exhibition, Wiley’s models mimic historical public sculptures from Dakar, Senegal, and Lagos, Nigeria.

Target’s Free Sundays are marked on this calendar. Otherwise, admission is $7.00 for adults.