Kehinde Wiley MFA ’01 at 2022 Venice Biennale

Kehinde Wiley MFA ’01 is another Yale artist featured at the Venice Biennale. His exhibition, An Archaeology of Silence, is organized by Musée d’Orsay and is on display until July 24, 2022

Curated by Christophe Leribault, An Archaeology of Silence includes a collection of new monumental paintings and sculptures, expanding on Kehinde Wiley’s body of work DOWN from 2008. Initially inspired by Holbein’s painting The Dead Christ in the Tomb as well as historical paintings and sculptures of fallen warriors and figures in the state of repose, Wiley created an unsettling series of prone Black bodies, re-conceptualizing classical pictorial forms to create a contemporary version of monumental portraiture, resounding with violence, pain, and death, as well as ecstasy.

One of Wiley’s paintings, Portrait of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Jacob Morland of Capplethwaite, was recently acquired by the Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale Center for British Art. It is currently on display at the YUAG. 

The 59th exhibition of the Venice Biennale opens April 23rd. For a full list of artists at the exhibition, visit here.

Read more about Archeology of Silence here.