Artist
Kerry James Marshall
b. 1955, Birmingham, Alabama, USA · American · Based in Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Otis College of Art and Design
- Monumental Figurative Painting
- Grisaille & Pitch-black Acrylic
- Collage
- Comics
Kerry James Marshall has built a sustained practice around the absence and presence of Black figures within Western art history. Born in Birmingham and raised partly in Los Angeles, he studied at Otis Art Institute with the example of Charles White close at hand and later settled in Chicago. Marshall’s paintings deliberately engage the languages of Renaissance composition, modernism, abstraction, genre painting and popular culture while insisting that Black subjects occupy the center rather than the margins of those traditions.
Painting; drawing; printmaking; sculpture; installation
Gallery Representation
Artist Films
Exploring Black Identity with Kerry James Marshall | Art21
Art2114 minOfficial source ↗ (opens in a new window)
Kerry James Marshall and Helen Molesworth in Conversation
The Museum of Contemporary Art80 minOfficial source ↗ (opens in a new window)
Kerry James Marshall on The Importance of Black Bodies in Art | From the Archive | Louisiana Channel
Louisiana Channel2 minOfficial source ↗ (opens in a new window)
Major Works
- 1980A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self →Egg tempera on paper
- 1993De Style →Acrylic and collage on canvasLos Angeles County Museum of Art
- 1993Lost Boys: AKA Black Johnny →Acrylic and collage on canvas
- 1994Many Mansions →Acrylic and collage on canvasArt Institute of Chicago
- 1995Our Town →Acrylic and collage on canvas
- 1995Knowledge and Wonder →Acrylic and collage on canvas
- 1997Souvenir I →Acrylic, collage and glitter on canvasMuseum collection
- 1997Past Times →Acrylic and collage on canvasPrivate collection
- 2012School of Beauty, School of Culture →Acrylic and glitter on unstretched canvasBirmingham Museum of Art
- 2014Untitled (Studio) →Acrylic on PVC panelThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
Museums & Public Collections
Selected Exhibitions
- 1997 documenta X and Whitney BiennialMajor exhibition / biennial / historical milestonegroup
- 2003 Venice BiennaleMajor exhibition / biennial / historical milestonegroup
- 2016–17 Kerry James Marshall: MastryMajor exhibition / biennial / historical milestonegroup
- 2025–27 Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy / Kunsthaus Zürich / Musée d’Art Moderne de ParisMajor exhibition / biennial / historical milestonegroup
Interviews & Writing
- 2023Now and Forever →Art21video
- 2008Black Romantic →Art21video
- 2008On Museums →Art21video
- Museum-quality video search →RESEARCH QUEUEvideo
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