Sean Kelly Gallery is delighted to announce, What the Light Becomes, Kehinde Wiley’s fourth exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition focuses specifically on contemporary New Yorkers and, more broadly, on how New York represents a portrait of America at this moment, not as a single cohesive identity, but as something diverse, shifting and continually being remade. The exhibition is conceived of as a love letter to New York and a return to the subject of the city that launched Wiley’s career, after a number of years in which his practice has taken him around the world. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, November 5 from 6-8pm. The artist will be present.
For this new body of work Wiley draws inspiration from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, a longstanding motif in art and literature, employed as a metaphor for the passage of time and the cyclical nature of change. Against the backdrop of a city defined by continual transformation, the changing seasons become a framework through which to consider transition, renewal, and regeneration.
Wiley’s process of selecting subjects for his new portraits was based on chance encounters on the streets of New York. Instead of an extensive casting process, Wiley approached people going about their ordinary activities, walking to the subway, shopping, leaving a CVS, and invited them to be photographed. The sitters were depicted in the clothing they happened to be wearing that day, with Nigerian stylist Ugo Mozie adding select elements. The resulting portraits elevate these chance encounters, speaking to the pleasure and “miracle” of simply being alive and encountering one another on New York’s vibrant streets.
The exhibition features new paintings, oil studies on paper, and a film that follows several of the individuals portrayed, delving into their histories and lives.
Sean Kelly Gallery