State Department Removes Obama Portrait Artist Kehinde Wiley's Work From Embassy

Saul Loeb/Getty The State Department has removed a painting by high-flying artist Kehinde Wiley from a U.S. embassy, with a Trump goon running the agency’s art operation trashing the piece as “very woke” and “aesthetically terrifying.” Wiley, who skyrocketed to global fame after painting Barack Obama’s official portrait, created the piece for the U.S.

Embassy in the Dominican Republic.

Titled Young Artists After Siamesas 1960 , the canvas showcases four Dominican models framed by a lush floral backdrop—commissioned by the government back in 2013 using taxpayer dollars.

Last week, State Department suits dragged it off the wall, but not before first smothering it in a tarp printed with the U.S. flag.

Erin Scavino, a contestant on Donald Trump’s The Apprentice who is now head of the department’s Art in Embassies program, went on Sean Spicer’s podcast to gloat about the takedown, linking the decision to Wiley’s presidential ties.

“She had a piece of art in her embassy that we worked very hard to get taken down.

It was very woke.

It was by the gentleman who did Obama’s portrait, and it was aesthetically terrifying,” Scavino said, referencing U.S.

Ambassador to the Dominican Republic Leah Campos.

Campos celebrated the purge on social media with a video set to the song “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” blasting the artwork for channeling “globalist and woke ideologies.” Neither official explained what was actually wrong with the image itself.

A State Department spokeswoman dodged discussing the canvas’ contents when the New York Times reached out for comment on Monday.

Instead, she dredged up a 2023 quote from Wiley about an entirely different painting, Judith and Holofernes , which he had dubbed “a play on the ‘kill whitey’ thing,” alongside sexual assault allegations Wiley has denied.

“The work of an individual with such violent and racist words and depictions has no place in the America First State Department,” the spokeswoman declared, hinting they might try to flog the piece.

“If that is feasible, it would be the goal of Art in Embassies to proudly do so.” A smaller Wiley piece pulled in nearly $845,000 at a 2024 auction.