Kerry James Marshall - Untitled (Painter), 2009.

Acrylic on PVC panel

Will be on view February 22, 2024 - May 19, 2024, at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The exhibition is titled The Time is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure. More about the exhibition below…

Curated by Ekow Eshun this exhibition celebrates artists who work with figuration as a means of illuminating the richness and complexity of Black life, considering how artists depict the Black form, both against a social backdrop of high cultural visibility and continued social vulnerability.

It also examines the absence of Black presence within Western art history. Within this context, exhibited portraits will examine the aesthetic, psychological, and political considerations involved in representing blackness.

Also worth checking out.

Kerry James Marshall describes the seven shades of black he uses to paint his nuanced figures.