Artist Kehinde Wiley has been accused of sexual assault by a fellow artist, Ogechi Chieke, in a lawsuit that was filed in New York this previous February.
Wiley, who’s most well-known for portray Barack Obama’s official presidential portrait, has confronted a number of allegations of sexual assault by males prior to now 12 months. A lot of these claims had been made on Instagram, and he has repeatedly denied the allegations towards him.
However Chieke’s lawsuit is the primary time any of these accusations have been aired in a authorized setting.
Her lawsuit was filed in New York Supreme Court docket on February 28, someday earlier than the expiration of an modification to New York’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Safety Legislation that allowed survivors to file fits associated to incidents of gender-based violence that occurred at any level prior to now. Chieke alleged that Wiley assaulted her at a New York restaurant in 2007.
Within the go well with, Chieke claimed that she had gone to a dinner with Wiley, who “started to press his chest” towards hers whereas they awaited a desk. He allegedly proceeded to seize her buttocks. “Wiley then forcibly grabbed her vagina—inflicting her extreme ache—and whispered that he ‘would lick that pussy so clear,’” the lawsuit alleges.
Based on the go well with, Chieke left New York due to the alleged assault and “stopped working in effective artwork … as a result of trauma inflicted upon her by Wiley.”
The go well with was first reported by the Unbiased in February however which has not been reportedly broadly.
Chieke’s attorneys, Eric M. Baum and Reyna Lubin, mentioned in an announcement to ARTnews that Wiley had “violated the legislation,” in addition to Chieke’s “civil rights.”
In an announcement to ARTnews, Wiley mentioned, “There isn’t any fact to Ms. Chieke’s allegations. I’ve by no means met her, nor do I do know her.” He referred to as her lawsuit a “blatant money-grab” and added, “Simply as I convincingly defended myself towards the others, I can’t let her baseless accusations injury my identify and popularity.”
Wiley was first accused of sexual assault final summer time by artist Joseph Awuah-Darko. His allegations had been made to Instagram not lengthy earlier than Terrell Armistead got here ahead with claims towards Wiley. Each Awuah-Darko and Armistead alleged that that they had been raped by Wiley, who mentioned he had had consensual encounters with each males.
Wiley denied having assaulted Awuah-Darko and Armistead. He equally denied claims by two different males who subsequently alleged that the artist had assaulted them. Awuah-Darko has mentioned he would take authorized motion towards Wiley, however no reviews of a lawsuit have emerged.
A number of museums have canceled deliberate displays of Wiley’s artwork, together with the Minneapolis Institute of Artwork, which was scheduled to take a touring survey of his work and sculptures. The museum referred to as the allegations towards Wiley “unlucky.”
