Obama Chooses Nigeria's Kehinde Wiley To Paint His Official Portrait

Former U.S. President, Barack Obama, has chosen Nigeria’s Kehinde Wiley to paint his official presidential portrait.

Wiley, a New York-based artist and hip-hop portraitist, is known for lush, larger-than-life portraits that overlay black street culture with European classical motifs.


Wiley has painted rappers LL Cool J in the style of John Singer Sargent, Ice T as Emperor Napoleon by David, and young African American men in stained glass tableaus, like saints in a cathedral.

Born to a Nigerian father and an African American mother, the background of his paintings reference African cloth patterns, snaking through the composition to give further clues on his subject.

The portraits will be unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC next year.

Below are his previous paintings: