Kehinde Wiley, the artist who painted Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait, has responded to several men who have accused him of sexual assault.
In 2021, Ghanaian artist Joseph Awuah-Darko claimed Wiley sexually assaulted him twice.
On his Instagram, Awuah-Darko wrote, “On 9th June 2021 – I was sexually assaulted by @kehindewiley. It almost destroyed me.”
Activist Derrick Ingram has also come out and accused Wiley of rape.
Ingram wrote on Instagram, “On September 10, 2021, I was raped and sexually assaulted by Kehinde Wiley at his apartment in New York.”
The accusations don’t end there.
Author Nathaniel Lloyd Richards has come out recently and told Hyperallergic magazine that Willey inappropriately touched and groped him during a date in 2019.
In response to the allegations, Willey stated he was a victim of a “reckless smear campaign.”
Barack Obama’s official portrait artist, Kehinde Wiley, fighting back against numerous sexual assault accusers https://t.co/r01Miw5zmS pic.twitter.com/3R3g3OXfhw
— Page Six (@PageSix) June 12, 2024
Per Page Six:
Kehinde Wiley — the NYC-based artist who’s most famous for painting Barack Obama’s official portrait — is fighting back against sexual assault and abuse accusations by numerous men.
One of the accusers, Ghanaian artist Joseph Awuah-Darko, has claimed in an Instagram post that in 2021 Wiley assaulted him twice. But on Tuesday, Wiley published on Instagram alleged records of Awuah-Darko messaging him and “professing his love for me, my talent, and my work,” since the alleged 2021 incident.
Additionally, “he has mentioned me on his Instagram stories more than 30 times,” Wiley wrote. “Before he made these unhinged false claims and deleted thousands of Instagram posts that didn’t fit his narrative, he celebrated our friendship on his feed,” the artist added.
Another accuser, activist Derrick Ingram, also recently came forward accusing Wiley of rape. “On September 10, 2021, I was raped [unprotected] and sexually assaulted by Kehinde Wiley at his apartment in New York,” Ingram publicly claimed along with Wiley’s address in an Instagram post this week.
Two more people accuse Kehinde Wiley of sexual assault https://t.co/RgelF454L6
— Charl Blignaut (@sa_poptart) June 12, 2024
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