The backgrounds by design are a very key part of the conversation, because I want a kind of fight or pressure to exist between the figure and the background.

There's a team of filmmakers who follow me in the streets when I'm finding these models, to give me a sense of legitimacy to a casual stranger. This is New York City. No one's going to follow you back to your studio.

One of my most strong memories was studying with Mel Bochner, one of the, I think, high water marks of American conceptual art.

In my work, I want to create an understanding, not about what a painting looks like but about what a painting says.

I love the of dealing with the homoerotic versus the idea of dealing with certain tropes with regards to black masculinity in the world, propensity towards sports, antisocial behavior, hypersexuality - all of these sort of non-truths that I don't exist in but that I see as being fixed in the world's imagination.

There were certain expectations that were assumed of me as a young black American 20th-century - then 20th-century artist.

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.