Kehinde Wiley is a New York City-based portrait painter who is known for his highly naturalistic paintings of African-Americans. The Columbus Museum of Art, which hosted an exhibition of his work in 2007, describes his work as follows: "Wiley has gained recent acclaim for his heroic portraits which address the image and status of young African-American men in contemporary culture." In October 2017 it was announced that Wiley had been commissioned to produce a portrait of former U.S. president Barack Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. This painting was unveiled on February 12, 2018. He and Amy Sherald, whose portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama was simultaneously unveiled, are the first black artists to paint official portraits of the president or First Lady for the National Portrait Gallery. Wiley has received criticism in association with commissioning him for the Obama presidential portrait, as he has produced two painting variations of Judith Beheading Holofernes where Wiley depicts African-American women holding the severed heads of white women, which Wiley says is a "play on the 'kill whitey' thing".