Annoyed Radha With Her Friends 2010

Kehinde Wiley painted ‘Annoyed Radha With Her Friends’, using oil on canvas. The way Wiley layers reality with art history always gets me. The painting is super smooth, almost airbrushed, which makes the figures pop against the background, like cutouts. I mean, look at how the light hits the orange shirt of the standing figure; it’s so vibrant, it almost vibrates off the canvas. Then there's the guy kneeling, bathed in a similar light, but his expression is what really grabs you. It's like he's caught between worlds, this contemporary pose set against a backdrop of classical figures. The mark making is smooth and obscures the process of the painting, leading to a hyperreal quality. Wiley’s got this knack for making you question everything, and that’s what makes his work so engaging. He reminds me of someone like Mickalene Thomas, who also plays with identity, representation, and art history in her own unique way.