Primarily focused on blurring the traditional and contemporary representations of class boundaries, Kehinde Wiley’s subjects have primarily tended to be young African-American men, straight from the streets of Harlem. But World Stage: Africa, Lagos - Dakar at Studio Museum Harlem is moving beyond the boundaries of the urban New York landscape. Taking Wiley’s well-known style and transplanting it to a global spectrum, the new series of 10 paintings were conceived in temporary studios set up along his travels through Nigeria and Senegal. Consequently, traces of regional architecture and textiles have found their way into his new works.

Although his stylistic signature has always been juxtaposing the elements of traditional renaissance portraiture with that of urban African–American culture, this new exhibit gave Wiley the freedom to represent the historical dynamics between power and privilege in an entirely new setting. Suffusing his works with a hint of the post-colonial, Wiley paints his subjects in poses replicated straight from independence–era statues scattered around Lagos and Dakar.

Whilst these new paintings retain a powerful vibrancy, there is arguably a loss of the familiar garnered in Wiley’s earlier works. The instant identification garnered by the Harlem-based settings of his earlier portraits is somehow lost when transferred to the African landscape. But this new dimension in Wiley’s artistic realm is producing iconic results that are sure to resonate with a bigger crowd than ever.