All art is self-portraiture.

It never really understood its own situational luxury. And I think that by and large the privilege of being Kehinde Wiley in the 21st century, making these high-priced luxury goods, traveling the world, pointing at these people, behooves me to have a point of view and to say something about it.

I think that at its best you just have to respect each arena for what they can do well.

It was probably one of the things that gave me a sense of possibility and allowed for me to see beyond the small community that I existed within. You know, I was making friends with young Soviet kids. this is during perestroika. You know, there's bread lines and vodka lines. The entire social structure of what was then the Soviet Union was radically different from what we know today.

Portraiture is something that we're all drawn to. I think primarily other forms - we prefer, by and large, to look at human beings than a bowl of fruit.

There's nothing shocking inherently about that, given that so much of the way that artists are taught is by copying old master paintings.

Usually I bring very attractive women with me to excite interest. I mean, it's a type of, like, strangers-with-candy situation.