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.
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
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
$350
H 24 in W 18 in
PEARL JAM X Streaming Seattle Poster on Wood Veneer Ian Williams
Located in Draper, UT
"Pearl Jam Seattle 2021 Streaming Event" Wood Edition by Ian Williams Discover the rustic charm of "Pearl Jam Seattle 2021 Streaming Event" by acclaimed artist Ian Williams. This uni...
Screen
Bhutan Abstraction PF-2
By Ricardo Mazal
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This unframed, signed, limited edition pigment print by world renown artist Ricardo Mazal exists in an edition of 30. The image is printed at full bleed to the edge of the paper. Bo...
Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
Bhutan Abstraction PF-1 and PF-2
By Ricardo Mazal
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This unframed, signed, limited edition pigment print by world renown artist Ricardo Mazal exists in an edition of 30. The image is printed at full bleed to the edge of the paper. Bo...
Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
$1,385
H 24 in W 36 in
Shepard Fairey "Swan Song" Silkscreen Print Gold Metallic Inks Contemporary Art
By Shepard Fairey
Located in Draper, UT
Manufacturer: Obey Giant Edition Details: Year: 2023 Class: Art Print Status: Official Run: 68/550 Technique: Screen Print Paper: Fine Art Thick Cream Speckletone Size: 36 X 24 Mark...
Gold
$1,750
H 24 in W 36 in
Shepard Fairey "Raise the Level" Silkscreen Print Contemporary Art
By Shepard Fairey
Located in Draper, UT
Shepard Fairey "Raise the Level" Silkscreen Print Contemporary Art Materials: Screen Print On Fine Art Print Size: 24 × 36 in 61 × 91.4 cm Condition: Print is in pristine condition with four sharp corners and has been stored flat since purchase in Los Angeles. Signature: Hand-signed by artist, Signed and Numbered in Pencil by the Artist, Shepard Fairey. Edition 549/550 Publisher: Obey Giant Studio...
Screen
$1,750
H 24 in W 18 in
Muhammad Ali "Heavyweight Ideals" Shepard Fairey Screenprint Contemporary Art
By Shepard Fairey
Located in Draper, UT
Shepard Fairey Muhammad Ali "Heavyweight Ideals" Shepard Fairey Screenprint Contemporary Art, 2023 Fine Art Thick Cream Speckletone Paper Silkscreen Print with Gold Metallic Inks 24 ...
Screen
Bhutan Abstraction with Green - 1
By Ricardo Mazal
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This unframed, signed, limited edition pigment print by world renown artist Ricardo Mazal exists in an edition of 30. Paper size is 35 inches h x 30 inches w with an image size of 26 inches h x 27 inches w. Born in Mexico City in 1950, Ricardo Mazal moved to Barcelona Spain in 1986, and since 1990 has lived and worked in New York City, as well as Santa Fe New Mexico. Mazal’s work explores the process of visual perception as it takes form in the human consciousness. His paintings depict the passage of time, not by illustrating events but by leaving their residue to dissipate in space like a still photograph of a speeding object blurred to abstraction. In the last decade he has been honored with ten individual museum exhibitions, including a retrospective at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City and the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (MARCO) in Monterrey. He has also shown at the Museo Nacional de Anthropologia, Mexico City and the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art. KORA follows the direction begun by La Tumba de La Reina Roja (The tomb of the Red Queen...
Archival Paper, Archival Pigment
$3,200Sale Price|46% Off
H 34.646 in W 28.8 in
Fin Dac Layeoja Redux Series Contemporary Street Artist Silkscreen Print
Located in Draper, UT
TITLE: Fin Dac Layeoja Redux Series YEAR: 2021 CLASSIFICATION: Limited edition MEDIUM TYPE Fine Art Silkscreen Print MEDIUM/MATERIALS 10 Colour Screen Print on...
Varnish, Screen
Fin Dac Vergiss Contemporary Street Artist Screenprint
Located in Draper, UT
Vergiss Details - Giclee print on 314 gsm, 100% Acid Free Cotton Fibre paper. Matte Finish/Textured Surface Size - 12x 16.5 in Sold Out Unnumbered Edition Foiled Sticker en verso for...
Varnish, Screen
$2,000
H 35 in W 19 in
Chuck Sperry Grateful Dead Bertha Silkscreen Print Capitol Theater Contemporary
By Chuck Sperry
Located in Draper, UT
Chuck Sperry lives in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco, where he’s made his particular style of rock poster designs for over 15 years. He operates Hangar 18, a silkscreen...
Screen
$2,250
H 24 in W 18 in
Shepard Fairey "Warhol Collage" Screenprint Contemporary Street Art Obey Giant
By Shepard Fairey
Located in Draper, UT
Original Illustration based on photograph by Karen Bystedt. Signed by Shepard Fairey and Karen Bystedt. Comes with C.O.A. from New Union Gallery. "I’ve been a fan of Andy Warhol’s ...
Screen
"Debbie Harry, Max's Kansas City, 1976"
By Bob Gruen
Located in North Adams, MA
Silkscreen and diamond dust on canvas Dimensions: 22" x 30" An edition of 25 Signed and numbered by the Artist Bob Gruen is one of the most well-known and respected photographers in Rock and Roll. By the mid 1970's he was already regarded as one of the foremost documenters of the scene working with major artists such as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Tina Turner, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, Kiss and others, also covering the emerging New Wave and Punk bands including The New York...
Canvas, Screen
Sold
H 19 in W 25 in D 0.1 in
Kerry James Marshall Souvenir 1 Pillow Sham Mastry Los Angeles
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Draper, UT
200 Produced on behalf of the 2017 Mastry Exhibition in Los Angeles Condition is sealed in original plastic 19 x 25 inches Digital Screenprint on Cotton Percale and Cotton Duck Thr...
Cotton
SCOUT SERIES SET OF 6
By Kerry James Marshall
Located in Washington , DC, DC
comes with original packaging
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