Wiley’s India paintings take young men of the street and accord them a heroic cast. Dressed casually, any one of them could be an youth from the streets of Bombay and Bangalore. Meanwhile, the settings they inhabit in Wiley’s paintings–temples or prayer rooms, or studios with fanciful backdrops–are the sites of mass engagement, spaces that offer community and hold promise. In these works Wiley hones in on the traditions of that recall South Indian poster art, the still, stylized effect reminiscent of the Indian photo studio, and most of all, a sense of the portrait as iconic. In this melee of signs we may read another India, one that is young, tentative and as yet un-inscribed in history.
SELECTED WORKS 2013
Kalkidan Mashasha, 2011
Oil and gold enamel on canvas 45" x 36"
SELECTED WORKS 2013
Kalkidan Mashasha, 2011
Oil and gold enamel on canvas 45" x 36"
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