The African-American artist Kehinde Wiley, who is best known for his portraits that render people of color in the traditional settings of Old Master paintings, including his most famous subject, Barack Obama, for the National Portrait Gallery, will be honored at the event ArtBall 2024, which will be held by Amref Health Africa (Amref), the most prominent African healthcare organization in the world. People who have altered the conversation around African and Black art are recognized with the Rees Visionary Award, established by Amref and named after the organization’s founder, Dr. Thomas Rees.
A contemporary African and Black art auction, entertainment, an open bar, intelligent food integration, and an award ceremony are all going to be part of the evening’s activities. Storm Ascher, Natalie Kates, Cierra Britton, Alexandra Giniger, and Nadia Nascimento will be responsible for curating the artwork that will be shown, and other artists who have contributed will be featured. On the 4th of May in the year 2024, ArtBall will be held in Brooklyn.
“Amref’s commitment to strengthening Africa’s health infrastructure is crucial and I particularly want to acknowledge their programs in Senegal and Nigeria, two countries that are of significant importance to my journey. I am grateful to be recognized with the Rees Visionary Award for my artistic practice and my founding of Black Rock Global Arts Foundation, which is on a mission to support new artistic creation and to incite change in the global discourse about what Africa means today. We do this by welcoming artists, writers, creative minds, and thinkers to live and work in Africa, and forge meaningful relationships with the continent. I very much look forward to ArtBall so we can celebrate Amref, Black Rock, and so many other partners who evolve a new sense of what Africa is and its many possibilities.” – Kehinde Wiley
About Kehinde Wiley
Kehinde Wiley is a well-known American artist who was born in Los Angeles in 1977. He is well recognized for his portraits depicting people of color in situations reminiscent of Old Master paintings. Using the visual vocabulary of the heroic, the mighty, the majestic, and the sublime, Wiley’s work celebrates the Black and brown people that the artist has encountered all over the globe. This puts art history and modern culture into direct contact with one another. Wiley’s portraits, which he creates across the media of painting, sculpture, and video, pose a challenge to and reorient art-historical narratives, therefore bringing to light complicated topics that many people would want to keep undisclosed.
By painting an official portrait of the President of the United States for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in 2018, Wiley made history by being the first African-American artist to do so. The former President of the United States, Barack Obama, chose Wiley to receive this honor. Black Rock Senegal is a multidisciplinary artist-in-residence program that was established by Wiley in 2019. The program welcomes artists from all over the globe to dwell in Dakar, Senegal, and continue their creative work there. The Medal of Arts from the United States Department of State, the W.E.B. Du Bois Medal from Harvard University, and the Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from France are all honors that have been bestowed on Wiley. The Rhode Island School of Design and the San Francisco Art Institute have both awarded him honorary doctorates, and he has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the San Francisco Art Institute as well as a Master of Fine Arts degree from Yale University. In addition to having his paintings featured in collections of over fifty public institutions around the globe, he has also staged solo exhibits across the United States and overseas. Beijing, Dakar, and New York are the places where he lives and works.
“Amref Health Africa is thrilled to honor Kehinde Wiley at ArtBall 2024. ArtBall was started to not only raise funds for our healthcare work but also to celebrate the greatness of the African continent through art and culture. Every year at the event, we honor an artist with the Rees Visionary Award. The award is named after our late founder, Dr. Thomas Rees, who was a pioneering reconstructive surgeon, pilot, author, musician, and sculptor. This Award is given to artists we feel are not only changing the narrative around African and Black art, but also creating exceptional work that educates, inspires, and emboldens the viewer through these challenging times This year, we chose to honor Wiley and celebrate “Black Presence”, aligning with his focus on reclaiming the presence of Black people: their royalty, their martyrs, and their everyday lives, in the world of fine art.”- Emily Correale, Director, Amref Health Africa
About Amref Health Africa (Amref)
Through the provision of healthcare solutions that are accessible, sustainable, and culturally appropriate, Amref Health Africa (Amref) is committed to strengthening African communities. Across the continent of Africa, we work hard to promote the health and well-being of people and families by employing a dedicated workforce that is mostly comprised of African representatives. With the help of community-based projects, we want to improve access to healthcare, encourage preventative care, and cultivate a feeling of ownership over health, with the ultimate goal of making Africa a healthier and more resilient continent for everyone. Over 31 million people, including men, women, and children, reached the continent in the previous year.
Image Courtesy : Kehinde Wiley
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