Museums Halt Kehinde Wiley Exhibitions as Sexual Misconduct Allegations Swirl

The Minneapolis Institute of Art on June 13 revealed that it is placing on hold its plans to mount a plannedKehinde Wileyexhibition after several men accused the artist of inappropriate sexual behavior. The show, “An Archaeology of Silence,” opened at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco last spring before traveling to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, where it closed in May. The Minneapolis museum was to have hosted it in early 2025. “As a result of [the] unfortunate allegations [against Wiley] we will not be proceeding with this presentation,” said the museum in a statement.

The exhibition was to have appeared at the Pérez Art Museum Miami this July, but museum officials there say they have “suspended plans” for the show, too. Also on the chopping block is “Kehinde Wiley: Omaha,” an exhibition of portraits of Omaha residents that was set to launch in September at the city’s newly renovated Joslyn Museum. Instead, the Joslyn said through a spokesperson that it was “revisiting” its schedule and that it will “announce any updates at a later date.”

Wiley rose to prominence with his canvases featuring young Black men in lushly painted surrounds that call to mind Old Masters; he is perhaps most widely known for painting President Barack Obama’s official portrait in 2018. The artist in May was accused of sexual assault by Ghanaian artist Joseph Awuah-Darko, the founder of Ghana’s Noldor Artist Residency. Awuah-Darko alleged that what began as a consensual sexual encounter during a 2021 dinner given by Ghana’s Creative Arts Council in honor of Wiley at the residency turned into a “much more severe and violent” assault. Shortly thereafter, activist Derrick Ingram accused Wiley of raping him in a SoHo apartment in 2021, during a brief relationship, and another man, Terrell Armistead, alleged that the artist had raped him in 2010. All three men posted their initial allegations to Instagram. Wiley has vigorously denied the accusations. “Posting something to Instagram doesn’t make it true,” his attorney, Jennifer J. Barrett, of New York firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, told Artnews after the second and third allegations came to light. “Yet, in today’s world, anyone can spread blatant lies with a single post, and the public accepts it at face value.”