KEHINDE WILEY / THE WORLD STAGE: ISRAEL

A result of close collaboration with Kehinde Wiley, this exhibition placed the artist’s portraits of Israeli youth in dialogue with Judaica from the museum’s collection. 

This exhibition at the Jewish Museum includes the display of a dozen of Kehinde Wiley’s large-scale portraits of a subculture of African Jews living in Israel from the artist’s The World Stage: Israel series. As part of Wiley’s narrative, he selected various traditional Jewish papercuts and textiles from the museum’s collection. Studio Joseph worked collaboratively with Wiley so that the gallery design supported a dialogue between the works, placing paintings in counterpoint to textiles, papercuts, and drawings. All Judaica, rugs and tapestries are displayed in large horizontal vitrines, from the oblique. The paintings are superimposed on white walls set into the traditional rooms of the museum.