I think that the Kehinde Wiley brand is something that I'm working towards expanding and to inclusion.

My mother's from Texas. Small town outside of Waco called Downsville. And my father's from Nigeria. And so I guess I'm properly African-American.

I was surrounded by art by virtue of not only the educational opportunities that my mother's foresight availed me to.

One of the weirdest things that happened to artists and art criticism was this moment when everyone got cynical and stopped believing in the ability to engage the world in all of its myriad purposes, transformations, and incarnations.

On the contrary, my desire is that the viewer sees the background coming forward in the lower portion of the canvas, fighting for space, demanding presence.

I think what we should concentrate on is what it feels like to be a working artist in the day to day. One doesn't imagine what comes down the line.

I studied shades, textures by painting after the Old Masters, the classical European paintings, as part of my educational process.