Kehinde Wiley Mentor 2022
Each year, Reiffers Art Initiatives invites a major figure of the contemporary art world to become the mentor of an emerging artist of the French scene. The mentor chooses the laureate of the mentorship program among the selection of emerging artists proposed by the artistic committee. This mentorship will give rise to an exhibition during the Paris+ by Art Basel.
Mentor 2022
Kehinde Wiley
The first African-American artist to have painted the official portrait of an American president (Barack Obama in 2018), Kehinde Wiley has established himself over the past two decades as one of the major figures in contemporary art with his hyper-realistic and colorful canvases exhibited at the National Gallery in London, the Petit Palais in Paris and the Cini Foundation in Venice.
Famous for his hyper-realistic depictions of contemporary African-American and African-diasporic figures that subvert the hierarchies and conventions of European and American portraiture, Wiley works in painting, sculpture and video and challenges and reorients art historical narratives, raising complex socio-political issues that have long remained taboo. He holds a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, an MFA from Yale University and honorary doctorates from the Rhode Island School of Design and the San Francisco Art Institute.
He has had solo exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad, and his work is in the collections of more than 60 public institutions worldwide. Kehinde Wiley is the founder and president of Black Rock Senegal. He lives and works in Dakar, Lagos and New York.
"But, today, is it really that simple to create new standards of excellence that do not rely on criteria dictated by white supremacy and European biases? This, I believe, is the biggest challenge facing art in the 21st century."
Kehinde Wiley
Young talent Mentorship 2022
Alexandre Diop
Among the selection of young talents proposed by the artistic committee, he chose to support the French-Senegalese artist Alexandre Diop
Alexandre Diop is a French-Senegalese artist whose approach is guided by the physical realities of the materials he uses in his work. Using everyday objects such as books, photographs, metal and wood, as well as elements such as animal hair, fire and rust, Diop expresses sympathy for the traditions of the Arte Povera movement. The effect is not unlike the work of Noah Purifoy or Louis Nevelson, in that Diop recasts found materials into a unified and harmonious assemblage.
“If I do art, it’s because I feel there is a lot of energy inside me; a lot of spirit. We are not just made of bodies, or a bank account, or numbers. We don’t know where we come from. It’s still a big question. What do we do here? We arrived, we grow, we learn to speak, we learn our emotions, but there is a lot beyond this."
Alexandre Diop
The program
THE MENTOR
The mentor shares his or her experience and advice with the young talent in an ongoing intergenerational dialogue.
The 2022 selection of the 14 emerging artists is made exclusively by the members of the artistic committee, and the final choice of the winner of the "Mentor and Young Talent" program is made by the mentor.
THE YOUNG TALENT
Each year, the members of the artistic committee present the mentor with a selection of young artists whose visual and conceptual work has caught their attention.
During the mentorship, which lasts several months, the mentor dialogues with the selected artist about their respective practices, in an effort to open up and share artistic know-how.
THE EXHIBITION
The result of the work done under the mentorship is visible in the form of an exhibition presented each year in Paris in October, during the Paris+ Art Basel.
The Paris+ by Art Basel is a key moment in Paris, bringing together major players in contemporary art, to present and showcase the creations of the mentorship winner.