Puma’s african lifestyle collection

Kehinde Wiley, the internationally acclaimed, American-born painter who is famous for his decorative portraits of urban black men, has teamed up with PUMA for a creative project that will showcase contemporary African football legends in anticipation of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

In June of 2009, Wiley traveled to Cameroon, Ghana, and Côte D’Ivoire to collaborate with three of Africa’s most prominent football players, Samuel Eto’o, John Mensah and Emmanuel Eboué, in order to create a series of four original artworks featuring the players. The process was a true collaboration, as Wiley sat down with each individual player in their hometown to discuss the paintings and allow the players to have a voice in their own representation. “I wanted the history of African art to be the fulcrum point through which we see these athletes. I wanted the players to sit down with me and go through the art history books… in some ways, to respond to what I was responding to”, Wiley says.

The partnership between Kehinde Wiley and PUMA  includes an African Lifestyle collection featuring elements from eight existing works by Kehinde Wiley.

Love the collection, great sneakers, and hows the bag? Cute I’d say!!