Marshall, Kerry James, 1955-

Born October 17, 1955, in Birmingham, Alabama, Kerry James Marshall realized that he wanted to be an artist at a very early age. Inspired by pictures in a book, Marshall decided he wanted to be a visual artist.

Themes and ideas present in Marshall's work reflect the complex web of personal and social issues that have been instrumental in molding his life. When Marshall was eight, his family moved to the Watts community in Los Angeles, California. As the epicenter of intense struggle for civil rights, including a riot in 1965 and a confrontation between city police officers and the Black Panthers, Watts and its imagery have dramatically influenced the form and content of Marshall's work. His celebrated series, "The Garden Project", critiqued low-income housing projects whose names denoted an idyllic Eden-like world, camouflaging the poverty and violence within.

...