New Yorker Kehinde Wiley is easily one of contemporary art’s hottest young stars. Just recently, he enjoyed a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum and was featured on the cover of Art in America. By almost any measure — we stress almost since artists as young as 12-years-old are currently showing in major D.C. galleries — Wiley is a young artist, still a couple of years away from his 30th birthday. There is a lot of hype around this young artist and, currently, Wiley’s show, “White Paintings,” is hung at Conner Contemporary Art in Dupont Circle until June 11.

Wiley has done what most artists dream about. He thought of that one great idea that would propel him into the art world stratosphere. Leveraging heavy influence from classical painting, Wiley has merged the styles of the Old Masters with the styles of today’s hip hop masters. Wiley is clearly absorbed with the idealized and iconic nature of painting by artists such as Tiepolo, Titian, Ingres or Raphael. But in our contemporary and youthful culture, not much attention is paid to this classical style of art anymore. We can’t imagine many urban, street-wise kids or young adults being all that aware of such painting. But Wiley, in what must have been an epiphany, found a solution to bring both of his worlds together.