The Obamas have chosen Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald to be the first black artists to paint presidential portraits for the Smithsonian. Both artists are well-respected and well-placed in major museums (Kehinde Wiley’s work has auctioned for over $100,000), but still the selections clearly recognize American race and class barriers. Wiley portrays black men–ranging from anonymous people to Biggie Smalls–in Baroque environs previously reserved for European white male nobles. “I’m that kid who grew up in South Central Los Angeles in the 1980s in the specter of Latasha Harlins and LAPD police brutality,” Wiley has told Antwaun Sargent for VICE. “For me, all of that stuff is a very tried and true way black bodies are policed, controlled, and consumed. My work has always been a response to that.”