Centre Street Building, Level 3
Saint Amelie is one in a series of twelve freestanding stained glass panels by Kehinde Wiley that depict contemporary portraits of young Black residents of Brooklyn, New York. It mirrors the form, composition, figural pose, and framing of historic stained glass windows from the medieval and Renaissance periods (examples of which are on view nearby this work), and specifically a window titled Saint Amelie by the French Neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres (1780‒1867).
Wiley honors his subject, Kern Alexander, whom he used as a model in multiple works, by depicting him in a context traditionally reserved for Christian saints and religious contemplation. Like much of Wiley’s work, Saint Amelie explores the invisibility of Black people within the traditional art historical canon.