About the Artist
Kerry James Marshall
Kerry James Marshall (American, b. 1955) studied at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, earning his B.F.A. in 1978 and an honorary doctorate in 1999. Marshall is well known for his paintings depicting actual and imagined events from African-American history.
He is one of the most influential contemporary American artists. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1955 and raised in Los Angeles, he has spent his career addressing the underrepresentation of Black people in the history of Western art. His paintings, drawings, and prints place Black figures at the center of portraits, landscapes, domestic scenes, and historical narratives, asserting that Black lives deserve the same visibility and dignity long afforded to white subjects in museums.
