The Department of State has taken down Kehinde Wiley’s 2015 commissioned painting from the United States embassy in the Dominican Republic this month, saying the artist’s “violent and racist words and depictions” do not belong in the foreign relations agency.
In a statement shared with Hyperallergic, a spokesperson said the department has consulted legal representatives to “ascertain whether the art can be sold.”
Leah Campos, the Trump-appointed US Ambassador to the Dominican Republic as of 2025, posted a video of the work being removed on Instagram on August 11. Her caption read: “In the Trump Administration and under my leadership we are turning away from globalist and woke ideologies and instead embracing American patriotism and the beauty of our great country! 🇺🇸”
Wiley, who painted Barack Obama’s presidential portrait in 2018, was commissioned in 2013 by the State Department to create “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960” for its Santo Domingo embassy. The work shows four figures — two standing together as if poised to dance, and two seated on the floor at their feet — before a floral-patterned backdrop. Wiley researched the work of Dominican artists Celeste Woss y Gil and Gilberto Hernández Ortega ahead of the project, which he completed with help from local art students.
