Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic Opening Celebration, Feb. 11

Posted on February 08, 2016, 11:18 am
2 mins

Slide

Seattle Art Museum‘s first big show of the year, Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic, opens on February 11 and the opening celebration will include live music, a conversation with the artist and curator Catharina Machanda, figure drawing sessions and in-gallery performances. The event is free and open to the public, with tickets available at the door starting at 5 PM.

The conversation with Wiley and Manchanda will begin at 7 PM in the Plestcheef Auditorium. Seating is limited and is first-come, first-served. Overflow seating will be available in Nordstrom Lecture Hall.

More about Wiley’s work from SAM:

Kehinde Wiley is one of the leading American artists to emerge in the last decade and he has been ingeniously reworking the grand portraiture traditions of Western culture. Since ancient times the portrait has been tied to the representation of power, and in European courts and churches, artists and their patrons developed a complex repository of postures and poses and refined a symbolic language. This language, woven into all aspects of a portrait, described the sitter’s influence and power, virtue and character, or profession. In his consideration of portrait traditions, Wiley has been especially drawn to the grand aristocratic portraits of the 18th century.

Wiley’s portraits are highly stylized and staged, and draw attention to the dialectic between a history of aristocratic representation and the portrait as a statement of power and the individual’s sense of empowerment.


Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic Opening Celebration

When: Thursday, February 11, 5 PM – 10 PM

Where: Seattle Art Museum (1300 1st Ave)

See a full list of other events related to the exhibition on SAM’s website.

T.s. Flock is a writer and arts critic based in Seattle and co-founder of Vanguard Seattle.