Sean Kelly Gallery in New York is showing What the Light Becomes, Kehinde Wiley's fourth exhibition at the gallery, on view November 6 through December 23, 2026. The opening reception was Thursday, November 5, with the artist present.
The show is a love letter to New York and a return to the city that launched Wiley's career. He found his sitters by chance on the street: people walking to the subway, shopping, leaving a CVS. They are painted in the clothes they were wearing that day, with select additions by Nigerian stylist Ugo Mozie.
Wiley frames the body of work with Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, using the seasons as a way to think about transition, renewal and regeneration in a city defined by constant change. Alongside the paintings are oil studies on paper and a film that follows several of the sitters into their own histories.
Wiley painted the first official presidential portrait by an African American artist, Barack Obama's portrait for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in 2018. In New York, in our priority region, this is a major portrait show to see before it closes December 23.