What we have now is a communication ability. We have the ability to see working ideas that are going on in the great cities throughout the world and whether you live in Shanghai or you live in Sao Paulo, you have the ability of seeing and knowing the ideas of some of the greatest minds of our generation.

Status and class and social anxiety and perhaps social code are all released when you look at paintings of powerful individuals from the past.

Joseph Gotto, yeah. Just all-around one of the more inspiring artists - not because of any sort of specific content direction, but rather the respect that I had for his own work and the ability for him to translate his ideas into useful form for me as a student.

A realization and a dissection of the canon gave rise to the work. But there's also a sneaking suspicion of the canon.

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

I like to play with the conventions around what we expect of paintings historically. But I also like to play with the conventions that you expect from a Kehinde Wiley painting, too.

How does the artist function as poet-slash-witness-slash-trickster?