Kerry James Marshall Art
American, b. 1955
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.
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Artist: Kerry James Marshall
Keeping the Culture, mixed media signed/N print by top African American artist
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
On October 18, 2025, another example of this print sold at public auction for $28,000.
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...
Category
2010s Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Pencil, Linocut, Screen
BROWNIE
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Washington , DC, DC
comes with original packaging
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Thread
$600 Sale Price
20% Off
Untitled (Woman), 2010 - Hand-Signed
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Brooklyn, NY
The etching Woman by Kerry James Marshall, published by Paulson Fontaine Press in Berkeley, California, is a limited edition work, signed and numbered 30/50 by the artist. Presented ...
Category
2010s Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Etching
SCOUT SERIES SET OF 6
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Washington , DC, DC
comes with original packaging
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Thread
MOCA LA banner
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Washington , DC, DC
Double sided vinyl banner produced in 2017 on the occasion of the exhibition Kerry James Marshall: Mastry at MOCA March 12-July 3, 2017.
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Plastic
$2,800 Sale Price
20% Off
May 15 2001, signed/N iconic silkscreen by famed African American artist Framed
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in New York, NY
Kerry James Marshall
May 15, 2001, 2003
Four color silkscreen on Arches 88 paper
Pencil signed, dated and numbered 39/60 on the front. Bears printer's blind stamp
Vintage frame incl...
Category
Early 2000s Pop Art Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
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...
Category
2010s Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Plastic, Screen
SCOUT (BOY)
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Washington , DC, DC
comes with original packaging
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Thread
$600 Sale Price
20% Off
Untitled (Frankenstein)
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Berkeley, CA
Hardground Etching
Category
2010s Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Etching
Handsome Young Man, 2010 - Hand-Signed
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Brooklyn, NY
This piece, Untitled (Handsome Young Man) by Kerry James Marshall, is a hardground etching with aquatint, hand-signed, titled, dated, and numbered by Marshall out of an edition of 50...
Category
2010s Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
Set of Six (Six) Scout Series Embroidered textile Patches brand new and sealed
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in New York, NY
KERRY JAMES MARSHALL
Set of Six (Six) Scout Series Embroidered Patches, 2017
Rayon thread on poly twill backed embroidered patches, set of six. Brand new in original packaging.
Large...
Category
2010s Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Mixed Media, Textile
KERRY JAMES MARSHALL Untitled (Frankenstein), 2010 - Hand-Signed
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Brooklyn, NY
"Frankenstein" by Kerry James Marshall is a significant artwork that delves into themes of race, identity, and societal dynamics. This hardground etching with aquatint, hand signed, ...
Category
2010s Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Etching
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 ...
Category
2010s Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Archival Paper
DEN MOTHER
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Washington , DC, DC
comes with original packaging
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Thread
$600 Sale Price
20% Off
CUB SCOUT
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Washington , DC, DC
comes with original packaging
Category
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Thread
$600 Sale Price
20% Off
Kerry James Marshall Banner Authentic Mastry Exhibition
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Draper, UT
Mastry 2017 Exhibition Banner
Actual Banner Prominently Displayed in Downtown LA
Throughout a career spanning four decades, Kerry James Marshall has continuously interrogated and addressed the omission of black individuals from the Western art-historical canon. Across painting and a variety of different media, his complex and multilayered portrayals synthesize disparate genres, while seeking to counter stereotypical representations. As Lanka Tattersall notes, "Marshall's determination to mark the historical absence of black bodies in the Western canon of painting and his emphatic, programmatic insertion of blackness into the field of art are carried through the literal matter—the pigments—of his paintings."1
Marshall was born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama. He studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, earning his B.F.A. in 1978 and an honorary doctorate in 1999. In 2014, Marshall joined David Zwirner...
Category
2010s Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Vinyl
Untitled (Bride of Frankenstein)
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Berkeley, CA
Hardground Etching
Category
2010s Kerry James Marshall Art
Materials
Etching
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Supermodel by Kerry James Marshall
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Kerry James Marshall art for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Kerry James Marshall art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of blue and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Kerry James Marshall in cord, thread, fabric and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 21st century and contemporary and is mostly associated with the contemporary style. Not every interior allows for large Kerry James Marshall art, so small editions measuring 3 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of David Salle, Gigi Mills, and Jose Bedia. Kerry James Marshall art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $500 and tops out at $60,000, while the average work can sell for $2,800.
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Questions About Kerry James Marshall Art
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Kerry James Marshall is known for his acrylic paintings that pair realism with elements of collage and signage. Strongly influenced by childhood experiences in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, his art reflects this by confronting racial stereotypes in contemporary society. On 1stDibs, find a variety of original artwork from top artists.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022Kerry James Marshall is famous for using a variety of black pigments to depict themes of the black experience and history. His works confront stereotypes of African-Americans by celebrating and commemorating moments in their history. Browse a selection of Kerry James Marshall art on 1stDibs.
- Where is Kerry Marshall's art?1 Answer1stDibs ExpertMarch 22, 2022Kerry Marshall's art is in galleries and museums located around the world. Some of these institutions include Modern Art Oxford in Oxford, UK; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco, California; the Baltimore Museum of Art in Baltimore, Maryland; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. You'll find a selection of Kerry Marshall art on 1stDibs.