Obama portrait artist Kehinde Wiley accused of squatting in $18,000 NYC apt: report

Wiley’s lease for his $18,000 per month Greenwich Village apartment ended on September 30. His landlord said he is living there without permission and refuses to leave.

The fresh allegations come as Wiley deals with sexual assault claims from five individuals, four men and one woman. He has denied the accusations and no criminal charges have been filed against Wiley, who claimed that the encounters were consensual and that he doesn’t know some of the accusers.

According to the Daily Mail, the accusers include the following:

•Joseph Awuah-Darko, an artist who alleged Wiley groped him and assaulted him at a dinner in Ghana in 2021.

•Derrick Ingram, an activist who accused Wiley of rape during a 2021 relationship.

•Nathaniel Lloyd Richards, a filmmaker who alleged Wiley groped him in 2019.

•Terrell Armistead, a historian who claimed a non-consensual act in 2010.

•Ogechi Chieke, an artist who sued Wiley over an alleged 2007 assault after an art show.

Wiley’s fame grew in 2018 when his portrait of Obama was featured in the Smithsonian. It now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC. He was the first African American artist to paint an official US presidential portrait. The painting shows Obama sitting against a green, colorful background of flowers and leaves. His paintings have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auctions.