I love being a portraitist.

My paintings at their best take that vocabulary and attempt to transpose that into a form that gives respect not only to the history of painting but also to those people who look and sound like me.

I grew up in South Central Los Angeles, where people are in cars.

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

The expectations of the viewer are what you're asking about. And the expectations of the viewer are manifold. However, they are very fixed, given who I am in the world. People have certain expectations of me as an artist.

I think that artists provide questions, not answers. We provide provocations rather than fully formed objects.

I've met others [people] who simply responded to me, "You're Kehinde Wiley. I know your work. I saw it at the Brooklyn Museum [Brooklyn, NY] And I'd be honored to be in your work."