Nigerian-American painter makes TIME's 100 most influential list

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April 20, 2018 12:22 PM

This year’s list sees Nigerian-born American painter, Kehinde Wiley, the artist who painted the official portrait of Barack Obama.

TIME has released its 2018 list of TIME 100: The Most Influential People which brings together a group of artists, leaders, and pioneers each year.

The 2018 list includes several members of the world of art and architecture. This year’s list sees Nigerian-born American painter, Kehinde Wiley, the artist who painted the official portrait of Barack Obama, which was unveiled earlier this year at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.

ALSO READ: Meet the man behind Obama's official portrait

“Some consider him irreverent; I see an iconoclast,” rapper LL Cool J, who has previously sat for one of the artist’s portraits, noted in his write-up about Wiley. “Some of his subjects come from hip-hop culture, but he’s not a hip-hop painter. To put it simply, he does dope sh-t.”

Actors, painters, musicians, businessmen, political leaders, athletes – people from all walks of life who are making strides this year have been recognised.

Kehinde Wiley is a classically, formally trained artist who is transforming the way African Americans are seen going against the grain of what the world is accustomed to.

Over the previous two decades, the Los Angeles-raised and New York City-based artist became known for his larger-than-life canvasses showing contemporary African Americans within centuries-old trappings of power and status. Many of his highly sought-after works, which sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars, evoke Old Master paintings.

He’s also become known for his process of basing portraits off photographs of everyday people he meets on city streets around the world. It’s a method he first started using in Harlem, where these amateur models would choose classical images as inspiration for the resulting portraits.

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