A major retrospective of Kerry James Marshall to open at the Royal Academy of Arts in autumn 2025
This landmark exhibition marks the artist’s 70th birthday with over 70 works exploring Black life, history, and representation.
Kerry James Marshall, Untitled, 2009, Acrylic on PVC panel. 155.3 x 185.1 cm. Yale University Art Gallery, Purchased with the Janet and Simeon Braguin Fund and a gift from Jacqueline L. Bradley, B.A. 1979. © Kerry James Marshall
This autumn, the Royal Academy of Arts will present Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, the most comprehensive exhibition of the renowned American artist ever staged in Europe. Running from 20 September 2025 to 18 January 2026, the exhibition coincides with Marshall’s 70th birthday, offering a profound survey of his expansive and influential body of work. Featuring more than 70 pieces—including paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures—the exhibition assembles loans from leading institutions and private collections across North America and Europe. It will also premiere a new series of paintings created exclusively for this landmark occasion, marking Marshall’s first major UK institutional exhibition since 2006.
Kerry James Marshall is widely recognised as one of the most significant contemporary history painters of our time. His vivid, large-scale works delve into narratives often marginalised in Western art history, such as the Middle Passage, the Civil Rights and Black Power movements, and everyday Black life. With a visual language rooted in the classical traditions of Western painting, Marshall brings underrepresented Black subjects to the fore, crafting compositions that are both grounded in history and visionary. Drawing on influences ranging from art history and popular culture to Afrofuturism and science fiction, Marshall challenges exclusionary practices in art while celebrating the dignity and richness of Black experience.
Kerry James Marshall, De Style, 1993,Acrylic and collage on canvas. 264.2 x 309.9 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Purchased with funds provided by Ruth and Jacob Bloom. © Kerry James Marshall. Photo: © Museum Associates/LACMA
The exhibition’s thematic layout highlights Marshall’s approach to working in series, featuring 11 distinct groups of work spanning from the 1980s to the present. Early highlights include A Portrait of the Artist as a Shadow of His Former Self (1980) and Invisible Man (1986), which signal his commitment to exploring Black identity and representation. Later rooms will present works that reinterpret the traditional disciplines taught in institutions like the Royal Academy, including The Academy (2012). The show’s central galleries will showcase some of Marshall’s most iconic and ambitious paintings of everyday Black life, such as School of Beauty, School of Culture (2012) and Knowledge and Wonder (1995), offering human scenes that rival the grandeur of classical history painting.
Kerry James Marshall, Untitled (Porch Deck), 2014, Acrylic on PVC panel. 180.3 x 149.9 cm. Kravis Collection. © Kerry James Marshall. Image courtesy of the artist and David Zwirner, London
The exhibition will conclude with a provocative and newly completed suite of eight paintings exploring African involvement in the transatlantic slave trade—an unflinching examination of difficult historical truths. Visitors will also encounter Wake (2003–ongoing), a continually evolving sculptural work. Kerry James Marshall: The Histories not only affirms the artist’s stature as a master of modern narrative painting but also continues the RA’s tradition of honouring leading figures in contemporary art. Marshall, elected an Honorary Royal Academician in 2022, now joins a prestigious lineage of artists celebrated by the institution, including Ai Weiwei, Marina Abramović, and Anish Kapoor.
Date: 20 September 2025 - 18 January 2026. Location: Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BD. Price: from £23; concessions available; under 16s go free. Book now
