PROMOTER & DIRECTOR
KEHINDE WILEY &
BEBE ZAHARA BENET
Since finishing an MFA at Yale in 2001, the New York–based artist Wiley (left) has shot to meteoric critical and commercial success, fusing highbrow art and hip-hop culture by recreating classic late-Renaissance portraits with young men plucked from city streets. In September, his show “Black Light” debuted at Deitch Projects, following the publication of a monograph of the same name.
Nea Marshall Kudi’s drag persona, Bebe Zahara Benet (right) was born when, while working a Parisian runway, the male model was asked to fill in for female models who’d gone MIA. Raised in the West African Republic of Cameroon, Marshall took the pole position on RuPaul’s Drag Race in March and is preparing to release his first EP.
