Kehinde Wiley: Ship of Fools

About us

Kehinde Wiley is a world renowned Nigerian-American artist whose portraits challenge the conventional view of power, taste and privilege by portraying black people of disparate origins and social status as celebrated figures. His style is deliberately decorative and sitters include President Barack Obama, Kanye West and fellow artists Wangechi Mutu and Lynette Yiadom-Boakye.

In 2017, Wiley made his first ever film installation. 'Narrenschiff' (German for Ship of Fools) is a three-channel digital projection with direct reference to a 15th-century book of the same title by the German theologian, Sebastian Brant. The book satirised politicians, clerics and other well-known or influential people and was a huge success of the time, narrating the story of a crew of fools lost at sea.

Wiley's film provides a portrait of a group of young black men at sea, struggling to reach the land - a metaphor for both historical and contemporary histories of migration and social dislocation.

'Narrenschiff' joined The Box's collections in 2018 thanks to the Contemporary Art Society's Collections Fund at Frieze and is the focal point of this exhibition in The Levinsky Gallery at the University of Plymouth.

It's accompanied by the original 1498 book 'The Ship of Fools' by Brant which is part of The Box's Cottonian Collection, as well as the paintings 'Ship of Fools' (on loan from Royal Museums Greenwich) and 'Alexander Cassatt', and a bronze bust depicting American rapper Kanye West.

The exhibition reflects the variety of media that Wiley deploys, despite mainly being known for his paintings.

It is curated by The Box in partnership with The Arts Institute, University of Plymouth and Royal Museums Greenwich

*Please note, the exhibition will be closed on Mondays and from 21 December 2020-4 January 2021 (inclusive)