"Four stars" "★★★★"
Deitch Projects is showing the one of the most influential shows of the art season. Black Light by Kehinde Wiley is a series of photographs featuring contemporary black males with a regale floral digital backgrounds which overlap with the photo graphic image at times. Kehinde probably the most important black artist of recent times keeps the overall theme of the series in line with his larger body of work and incorporates some new ideas into the show. Using photography as the main medium he beaks from his pattern of painting his subjects and successfully portrays his subjects to the viewer as possible royal family in this re-contextualization of the male image and then we are able to examine the subtleties of his subjects in more detail and with more reality than his paintings.The background patterns bring to mind classical and neo-classical patterns which might be found on great tapestries or backdrops of a portrait in the metropolitan museum of art. The photography as medium makes his subjects real. The images are very narrative using the very bodies of the male figure to tell their story. Each image deserves its own room and time to absorb and take in. The gallery space didn't add to the work or subtract from it. Unfortunately, as a series the images loose their power and impact due to their similar composer and subject; Kehinde even uses the same models for multiple pictures. I would have given this show 5 out of 5 stars but to to the repetition of the images that reduces the visual diversity I must give it 4 stars. I recommend seeing this work due to its importance to the art world, and I highly recommend buying this work, a very,very good investment!
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