Three Girls In A Wood 2018

Kehinde Wiley made "Three Girls In A Wood" with paint, and wow, what a painting! It's like he's not just depicting people, but also how we see them. The way he uses color—those bright reds and blues—it's all so deliberate, like each shade is a brushstroke in a conversation he's having with art history itself. I mean, look at the surface! It's so smooth, you almost don't see the brushstrokes, which is a trick in itself. Then you've got these flat planes of vibrant pattern clashing with the hyper-realism of the figures, so the women pop, right? And there's one girl in the center. The flower coming out of her back almost, which just sends me. Wiley is playing with the traditional notions of portraiture but also bringing in his own ideas around sexuality and the gaze. It reminds me a bit of Chris Ofili, especially his use of bright colors and patterns, but Wiley's got his own thing going on. It's like he's saying, "Art can be beautiful and complicated," and "Why can't it also be a little bit weird?" And who am I to argue?