Review: Kehinde Wiley's Portraiture at San Francisco's Contemporary Jewish Museum

7X7 NEWS | SF
By Alex Bigman

CALIFORNIA---Kehinde Wiley's latest batch of epic portraits, now at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, ostensibly gives exposure to Israel's lesser-represented brown-skinned population–Ethiopian Jews, Rastafarians, Arabs and others of non-European descent. They're striking, but something about them feels amiss. The artist (or rather his studio assistants in New York and Beijing, who take care of the more mechanical aspects of the works) also wraps his subjects in colorful, ornate patterns sourced from their local culture – in this case motifs found on Torah covers, prayer shawls, traditional marriage contracts, and the like – and places them in equally grandiose frames. [link]