2017
In his multifaceted work, Kerry James Marshall strives to address “the lack in the image bank” by elevating Black figures who have been excluded from Western art. Using a variety of black pigments, the artist heightens the skin tones of his subjects to honor their identities rather than ignore them. Best known for his large-scale paintings, Marshall also works in collage, photography, video and other media.
Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Marshall later grew up in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, where his family relocated in 1963. As he studied art, including at the Otis Art Institute (now Otis College of Art and Design) in Los Angeles, he was struck by the absence of Black bodies in art history and museums. At the age of 25, he painted A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980). Its central figure, whose features almost merge with the background in their varying shades of black, references Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, the protagonist of which cannot be seen as a human being by other members of society because he is Black. For Marshall, A Portrait marked the start of an ongoing examination of the simultaneous visibility and invisibility of Black Americans.
Marshall’s practice has continued to concentrate on confronting stereotypes in the Black experience by celebrating joy and commemorating moments of Black history. His paintings frequently engage with the white-dominated traditions of the art historical canon by borrowing elements of style ranging from the Renaissance to the abstract movements of the 20th century. While he has said that he is driven by a sense of social responsibility for what he witnessed growing up in the South before the Civil Rights Act and in Los Angeles during the Watts riots of 1965, Marshall doesn’t focus on trauma in his works’ narrative scenes. Instead, they regularly depict people involved in everyday activities yet portrayed with the monumentality of a tableau painting.
Now based in Chicago, Marshall is recognized as one of the country’s leading contemporary painters, with a 2016 retrospective, "Mastry," touring the MCA Chicago, MOCA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2018, his painting Marshall’s Past Times (1997) sold for $21.1 million, the highest ever auction price for a work by a living Black artist.
Browse a collection of Kerry James Marshall’s art on 1stDibs.
Mastry New and Sealed Exhibition Hardcover Catalogue
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Draper, UT
The definitive monograph on contemporary African American painter Kerry James Marshall, accompanying a major traveling retrospective. This long-awaited volume celebrates the work of ...
Archival Paper
Kerry James Marshall Full Set of 6 Embroidered Patches Brownie Scout
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Draper, UT
KERRY JAMES MARSHALL Scout Series (Brownie Set), 2017 Embroidered patches on original branded backing cards Set of 6, each approximately 4 × 4 in (10.2 × 10.2 cm); card: 6 × 4 in (15...
Vinyl
The MCA "Wrapped" 1969 Christo & Jeanne-Claude Exhibition Poster Contemporary
By Christo and Jeanne-Claude
Located in Draper, UT
Own a piece of history with this rare and limited edition poster from the MCA! Commemorating Christo's iconic exhibition "Wrap In Wrap Out," this poster is a true collector's item. T...
Gold Leaf
Pop Art Giclée "All Blue Everything: A Walk in the Park with Stacey Abrams Gold
Located in Draper, UT
All Blue Everything: A Walk in the Park with Stacey Abrams, 2021 Giclée print on paper Signed in plate to lower right
Giclée
Hank Willis Thomas Who Taught You to Love? Signed and Numbered Print
By Hank Willis Thomas
Located in Draper, UT
11.4in x 33.5in Unframed 9-layer screenprint on Somerset Tub Sized 600gsm paper. Finished with Individually signature, dated and numbered. For American conceptual artist Hank Willis...
Screen
No Work Today Screenprint Abstract Figurative Signed and Numbered Pop Art
By Piet Parra 1
Located in Draper, UT
Parra "No Work Today" Signed limited edition screenprint (x/250) 50 cm x 70 cm Excellent condition
Screen
Large MOCA LA Street Vinyl Outdoor Banner for Kerry James Marshall Show - RARE
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in New York, NY
Kerry James Marshall MOCA LA Street Banner (Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles), 2017 Silkscreen on Vinyl 95 × 34 inches Original Gigantic Flagpole Banner exhibited on the stree...
Plastic, Screen
Kerry James Marshall 'Mastry' Offset Print, Contemporary Art, Unframed
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Poster for the Kerry James Marshall exhibition titled 'Mastry' which was held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art October 2016 - January 2017. "Mastry" exhibition at the Metropolitan...
Offset
2016 Kerry James Marshall - Mastry - The Met Original Poster
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Winchester, GB
Beautiful poster created for the 2016 exhibition of American artist Kerry James Marshall at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or The Met, in New York. Held from October 2016 to January...
Paper
Kerry James Marshall 'MASTRY MOCA LA Banner, 2017' 2017
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Produced for Kerry James Marshall’s landmark retrospective *Mastry* at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, this monumental exhibition banner reproduces a detail from the art...
Other Medium
Kerry James Marshall - Keeping the Culture, silkscreen and linocut, Signed/N
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in New York, NY
Kerry James Marshall Keeping the Culture, 2011 Silkscreen and linocut in colors with full margins and deckled edges on Arches paper with full margins and deckled edges 20-1/4 x 30-1/4 inches Hand signed, titled and numbered 79/100 by Kerry James Marshall in graphite pencil on the front Published by Africa House International, Chicago Unframed In September, 2025, "Kerry James Marshall: The Histories" opened at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. This major exhibition was the largest presentation of Marshall's work in the United Kingdom and Europe, and featured more than 70 works by the the artist, including a large number of paintings and a selection of prints, drawings and sculptures. Highlights of the show include a new series of paintings that explore the transatlantic slave trade, along with Knowledge and Wonder, a mural commissioned in 1995 by the Chicago Public Library that is the largest painting Marshall has produced. The exhibition at the Royal Academy will then travel to the Kunsthaus Zurich and the Musee d'Art Modern in Paris. Kerry James Marshall's 2011 "Keeping the Culture" is based upon the artist's eponymous painting done the year earlier, which is featured in the Royal Academy Exhibition. In 2013, an original painting, upon which this work is based, sold at Christie's auction. Below is the Christie's Lot Essay for that painting: ..." Set in a revolutionary apartment in the cosmos, Kerry James Marshall's Keeping the Culture optimistically anticipates a future that pays homage to the past. Ushering in a new stage of the artist's output, Keeping the Culture shifts focus from the failed utopia of urban renewal and the commemoration of civil rights era heroes in favor of a more technically refined meditation on the preservation of the traditional and spiritual values that shaped a culture. Placed in an ultramodern environment, two siblings marvel at a projection of the earth--in which Marshall has aptly positioned the African continent toward the viewer-while their affectionate parents dance in the foreground. Overlooking the milky way, Marshall's space-age flat is decorated with earthly relics-wooden tribal sculptures...
Mixed Media, Pencil, Linocut, Screen
Kerry James Marshall 'Knowledge and Wonder' 2025
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Postcard published by The Royal Academy of the Arts for the ongoing show, "Kerry James Marshall: The Histories." Framed in a white wood frame with a 4-inch acid-free mat and UV-ple...
Offset
