The french rococo pattern inspired backgrounds might make you think of renaissance aritsts ; In fact, Kehinde Wiley paints like a renaissance artist while also referencing the poses of characters painted by the old masters. Like the old masters paintings, Kehinde Wiley’s subjects are radiating with power, spirituality, and elegance in the larger than life paintings.

However, unlike the old masters, Kehinde is working in a contemporary world that is run by hip hop culture and its imagery. Kehinde’s work shows the urban black male as the protagonist in our culture. An unsung hero that is now given the same heroic portraiture seen in many art history text books. Kehinde explains why he paints this demographic, “often times when i go to museums around the world, most of the pictures on the wall don’t look like me.”

His models are found in the streets of neighborhoods like Harlem, where he currently resides, or South Los Angeles, where he is from. After finding a model, they are brought to his studio where they are shown a selection of art history books and are asked to choose a painting that speaks to them. A painting that they would like to resemble them. Kehinde then gets to work on immortalizing his model on the canvas. His paintings tackle the issues of race, religion, sexuality head on - no holds barred.

Kehinde Wiley received his MFA from Yale University in 2001. His work has shown at Deitch Projects and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. To see more of Kehinde Wiley’s work please go to his website at www.kehindewiley.com

Our friends over at Sketchy Pad.com have been hard at work putting together a charity art auction for the Jose Ortega Elementary School, a public elementary school in San Francisco, California. Despite having an amazing cause, curator, Mike Lin has also gotten together a very talented group of artists including: Tiffany Bozic, Josh Keyes, Dave Kinsey, Kylan Larson, Matthew Palladino, and Andrew Schoultz.

This is an ebay auction that will end on Wednesday, June 17, 2009.
Check out the ebay auction by going here.You can also go to the Sketchy Pad website to see all of the images here.

We wrote about PreFab 77 back in January read here Their work has always been exciting and full of energy. Nothing describes the energy behind their work more than their latest print release with our friends over at Art Asylum Boston who have teamed up with PreFab 77 to bring you their latest exclusive “Enemy of Promise 2″ This is a revision to the ever popular release of Prefab’s original Enemy of promise UK version, Each print is a 70 x 100 cm 2 colour thick gloss screen print with heavy silver hand embellishments painted by the artist making each piece unique.

It has an edition size of 150 for £95 ($145.00 US) each. ‘Enemy of Promise’ is ONLY available in North America through Art Asylum Boston and Curbs and Stoops, to purchase contact the gallery directly at: sales@artasylumboston.com or go to our prints page. The gallery will be taking requests for specific numbers for those who own the original UK version in order to be able to offer a matching number set. Hurry as these have had a pre-sale date and they will sell out fast. For more info on PreFab 77 please visit: www.prefab77.com

A friend recently forwarded Mike Mitchells work to me. Mike Mitchell who studied Illustration at the American Academy of Arts in Chicago, is a very skilled artist and illustrator who infuses his pieces with humor and satire. He describes his work as “cute and creepy, pop culture influenced and thought provoking”

His own rendition of the Super Nintendo Super Mario World character shows exactly that. Mike, who has always hated the Yoshi design, but appreciated him as a gameplay element, decided to make his own version of the characters. Mario became a more gritty character. Yoshi became more intimidating and has some cool new Nike kicks to boot.

There is still more behind his concepts. The lighting on his characters bring them into the realm of reality. His backgrounds are often rich textures or intricate patterns. You can see more of mike’s work at his website www.sirmikeofmitchell.com or by clicking here.Also, Mike sells prints and t shirts of his work on his etsy shop here.

It is refreshing to see an artist whose work is not the result of years of art instruction by dull art school teachers. While I think that art school has certainly created many artists, there are some whose work is the way it is because of a mere curiosity and drive to experiment.

One particular artist that this rings true for is Paper Monster. At first a scientist and reseracher, Paper Monster began paper cutout stencils primarily as a hobby. A way to cure boredom while concurrently releasing creative energy that he had stored in his day job. Paper Monster draws stencils of women. Whether they have a piercing stare or wondrous awe, their faces are always expressive. While his name might not suggest the beauty that is left behind, the name Paper Monster actually refers to the chaos of the artistic process. A name that is paradoxical in nature because the results are elegant and refined.

He uses bold colors sprayed on top of layers of old japanese comics, currency or other found objects. His goal is to “add greater depth to [his] stencil art pieces so that the audience can have a stronger interaction with the painting.”

While Paper Monster has only been creating stencils for the past four years, his work can already be found in several publications and art galleries. Including a recent show at Art Whino and Dirty Pilot. Keep an eye on Paper Monster’s blog at www.papermonster.org Also check back right here on Curbs and Stoops for an interview with Paper Monster coming soon and a possible print release (Maybe you should reply to this blog post if you love the man so that he will be encouraged!)