Obama presidential portrait painter Kehinde Wiley accused of sexual assault by artist in Ghana

Kehinde Wiley, the man who painted Barack Obama's presidential portrait, has been accused of sexual assault. Ghanaian artist Joseph Awuah-Darko claimed in an Instagram post that Wiley sexually assaulted him twice during an event in Accra in 2021.

"On the 9th of June 2021, I was sexually assaulted [twice] by Kehinde Wiley," Awuah-Darko wrote in his post. "I first met the American artist of Nigerian descent at a dinner held in his honour by Ghana's Creative Art Council at the Noldor Artist Residency."

Awuah-Darko noted that because he had founded and worked at the residency, he attended the event "in a professional capacity."

"In the first assault," he alleged, "I was inappropriately groped by Kehinde Wiley who proceeded to grab my buttocks with his hand before then saying something along the lines of 'what is this thing?' This happened in front of another dinner guest, while I was politely ushering them both up a flight of stairs to use the bathroom."

Awuah-Darko alleged that Wiley's conduct was "categorically unwelcome and unprovoked," pointing out that the artist had "barely known me for 2 hours by this point and I was wearing a modest dark green kaftan."

He said Wiley's actions "stunned" him because the artist "knew the power he wielded and seemed clearly prepared to abuse it."

Awuah-Darko went on to allege that the second assault was "much more severe and violent," though he did not go into detail in the post.

"Given Kehinde's self-described global recognition as a gay man," he continued, "formally reporting this assault in a West African country like Ghana [where anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiments are prevalent] would have been problematic at best – and dangerous at worst."

Awuah-Darko alleged that other victims of Wiley had reached out to him, and that his conduct was "an open secret within the art world."