For a second time, Kehinde Wiley denied allegations of sexual assault after new claims emerged Monday morning.
On Instagram, activist Derrick Ingram accused Wiley, a painter most generally identified for doing Barack Obama’s official portrait, of getting raped him in 2021. Ingram alleged that the assault occurred in Wiley’s SoHo condo.
“Posting one thing to Instagram doesn’t make it true,” Jennifer Barrett, an legal professional for Wiley, mentioned in an announcement to ARTnews. “But, in right now’s world, anybody can unfold blatant lies with a single put up, and the general public accepts it at face worth.” She mentioned there was “no proof” for Ingram’s claims.
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Ingram, a distinguished Black Lives Matter activist and the chief director of social justice non-profit Warriors within the Backyard, mentioned he was in a three-month-long relationship with Wiley, whom he accused of “excessive violence” and “extreme emotional manipulation” throughout their time collectively. Based on the timeline laid out by Ingram, the alleged rape occurred throughout their relationship. He mentioned he deliberate to sue Wiley in New York.
Barrett mentioned that Ingram and Wiley had had a “one-time consensual encounter.” Ingram didn’t reply to a request for extra remark.
Within the textual content posted as a picture to his Instagram, Ingram explicitly named Wiley. In an accompanying caption that didn’t identify Wiley, he wrote that he had been assaulted by “a predator that met me at my most susceptible and knew that I used to be simply beginning to heal. He actively exploited my ache and right now I’m taking again my energy.”
Ingram linked in his bio to a petition launched by Joseph Awuah-Darko, who accused Wiley of sexual assault final month. Like Ingram, Awuah-Darko claimed he had been assaulted in 2021. Additionally like Ingram, Awuah-Darko mentioned he deliberate to take authorized motion towards Wiley.
Barrett, Wiley’s legal professional, alluded to Awuah-Darko’s allegations, which she mentioned have been unfaithful.
“The false claims towards Mr. Wiley started as a vendetta by a person who shared a single consensual encounter with him,” she mentioned. “This individual pursued Mr. Wiley for over a 12 months, unsuccessfully pushing for a relationship. Not too long ago, this particular person has reinvented himself, soliciting money contributions from followers and inspiring others to hitch his fraudulent Instagram marketing campaign. His efforts have produced one different individual, who additionally had a one-time consensual encounter with Mr. Wiley years in the past and subsequently spent months sending him romantic texts in search of a deeper relationship.”
Wiley beforehand denied Awuah-Darko’s claims, saying, “Somebody I had a quick, consensual relationship with is now making false, disturbing, and defamatory accusations about our time collectively. These claims are deeply hurtful to me, and I’ll pursue all authorized choices to convey the reality to gentle and clear my identify.”
Wiley is famend for his work of Black sitters that reference Previous Masters portraiture strategies. A 2022 New Yorker profile labeled him “one of the vital influential figures in world Black tradition,” and mentioned that together with his Black Rock Senegal artist residency program, he was “shifting the artwork world’s heart of gravity towards Africa.”
A Wiley survey held the next 12 months on the Effective Arts Museums of San Francisco was successful, drawing huge crowds. It has since traveled, showing just lately on the Museum of Effective Arts Houston, with future stops deliberate on the Pérez Artwork Museum Miami and the Minneapolis Institute of Artwork within the coming 12 months, based on Wiley’s web site. Spokespersons for the Pérez Artwork Museum Miami and the Minneapolis Institute of Artwork didn’t reply to requests for remark.