*President Donald Trump’s administration has removed a painting by acclaimed Black artist Kehinde Wiley from the U.S. Embassy in the Dominican Republic, denouncing the Obama portrait artist’s work as “woke” while considering whether the taxpayer-funded piece can legally be sold.
The painting, “Young Artists After Siamesas 1960,” depicts four Dominican models against Wiley’s signature floral backdrop. It was commissioned by the State Department in 2013 and installed at the U.S. Embassy in Santo Domingo.
U.S. Ambassador Leah Campos posted video of its removal accompanied by Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” declaring that the administration was rejecting “globalist and woke ideologies” in favor of American patriotism, TIME reports.
From Cultural Diplomacy to ‘Very Woke’
Wiley famously painted Barack Obama’s presidential portrait, unveiled at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in 2018. But the Dominican Republic painting has its own international significance: Wiley worked with local art students, using four as models while drawing inspiration from Dominican artwork.
Erin Scavino, director of the State Department’s Art in Embassies program, called Wiley’s painting “very woke” and “aesthetically terrifying” during an interview with former Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer.
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The State Department also cited controversy surrounding Wiley’s other artwork and sexual assault allegations against him. As EURweb previously reported, multiple men accused Wiley of sexual assault in 2024. Wiley has denied the allegations.
The State Department Once Honored Wiley
The institutional reversal is striking.
In 2015, the State Department’s Art in Embassies program awarded Wiley its Medal of Arts for his contributions to cultural diplomacy. Its own archive says Wiley was then working on the monumental Santo Domingo embassy painting.
Then-Secretary of State John Kerry praised Wiley for celebrating people “in all of their magnificent variety” and thanked him for his commitment.
Eleven years later, the same State Department program is moving in a dramatically different direction as the Trump administration pushes federal cultural institutions toward explicitly patriotic themes.
The immediate question now is what happens to Wiley’s painting. A State Department spokesperson told TIME officials are examining whether the government can legally sell the work.
A piece Washington once commissioned to represent America abroad may soon be looking for a new home.
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