Kehinde Wiley and the Archaeology of Silence

On the occasion of the 59th Biennale di Venezia, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venice is showing from 22 April Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence. Kehinde Wiley's latest work illuminates the atrocities of the American and global colonial past through the metaphor of the fallen hero. The exhibition includes recent paintings and sculptures that follow on from Wiley's 2008 work DOWN. Originally inspired by Holbein's painting Dead Christ in the Grave, Wiley's idea at the time was to base an entire series of works on historical paintings and sculptures of fallen warriors or other heroic figures.

His latest series exclusively shows reclining black bodies that reshape the classical forms of representation. He turns them into contemporary versions of portraits, imbued with violence, pain and death, but also ecstasy. Through these central elements, he reflects on the global murder of young Black men, allowing viewers to witness depictions of violence on Black bodies that were previously silenced. As Wiley explains: »That is the archaeology I am unearthing: The spectre of police violence and state control over the bodies of young Black and Brown people all over the world.«

Wiley's reinterpreted portraits show the subjects in vulnerable poses. He lets them tell the story of survival and resilience, bringing to light the beauty that emerges in the terrible - all motifs borrowed from Western European art history. They go beyond the purely physical and enter the realm of spiritual icons, martyrs and saints. The exhibition can be visited until 22 July.

Kehinde Wiley (*1977, in Los Angeles) is best known for his portraits of African Americans and people of the African diaspora. In 2018, Wiley was the first African-American artist to paint an official portrait of the US president for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.