Kerry James Marshall and the exhibition histories between Zurich and Paris
Published on 08/27/2026 at 14:21 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Kerry James Marshall has spent decades building a dense painterly record of Black life and representation in Western art history. His large-scale survey exhibition Kerry James Marshall: The Histories now connects Kunsthaus Zürich and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, as both institutions describe this traveling project.
The survey exhibition across Europe
The exhibition Kerry James Marshall: The Histories has been conceived as a major survey spanning more than forty years of Marshall's work, organized by the Royal Academy of Arts in London with Kunsthaus Zürich and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. It gathers around seventy works, including eight new paintings created specifically for the traveling show, according to the Paris museum's detailed description.
The Zurich chapter at Kunsthaus Zürich presents Marshall's largest exhibition to date outside the United States and the first major survey of his work in the German-speaking world, as Kulturzüri and Kunsthaus Zürich summarize. It runs across paintings, drawings and prints, and foregrounds recurring motifs such as domestic interiors, urban parks and classroom scenes populated by Black figures rendered in deep, almost light-absorbing blacks.
The Paris chapter of The Histories
In Paris, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris describes Kerry James Marshall: The Histories as the first exhibition in France devoted to the artist, developed with his close involvement and structured as a chronological and thematic journey. The museum emphasizes that nearly seventy works and eight previously unseen paintings will chart Marshall's exploration of visibility, belonging and historical responsibility across four decades.
Secondary reporting from David Zwirner also underscores the exhibition's European trajectory, noting its stages at the Royal Academy, Kunsthaus Zürich and Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, and framing the show as Marshall's largest in Europe to date. This staging across three major institutions places the artist within a museum tier that includes London, Zurich and Paris all focusing intensively on his practice.
Further news and background on Kerry James Marshall
Readers can follow how museums, curators and writers continue to frame Kerry James Marshall's work, from survey exhibitions to collection presentations and critical essays.
The work core and recurring series
Marshall's practice centers on painting, often large canvases in which Black figures occupy domestic, public and art-historical spaces from which they have long been excluded by representation. Across series such as Garden Project, school scenes and museum interiors, he uses saturated color fields and collaged text to complicate how narratives of citizenship and beauty are constructed.
The survey exhibitions highlight these recurring bodies of work alongside more recent paintings that directly address the transatlantic slave trade and the role of African agents, a focus described in Royal Academy related material and critical coverage. Installations and mixed-media works extend these concerns into site-specific environments, while drawings and prints offer more intimate engagements with similar themes.
Where the artist stands now
Overall, Kerry James Marshall occupies a central position in institutional and critical discussions of contemporary painting, with major European museums dedicating multi-venue surveys to his work while his studio practice continues to develop new bodies of paintings and works on paper.
Key facts on Kerry James Marshall
- Artist: Kerry James Marshall
- Medium / Genre: Painting (figurative), mixed media installation, printmaking
- Born: 1955, Birmingham, Alabama, United States
- Place(s) of practice: Studio practice primarily associated with Chicago and Los Angeles, as noted in institutional biographies.
- Active since: Active since the early 1980s, with institutional recognition building from the 1990s onward.
- Key work groups: Garden Project, School of Beauty, School of Culture, Souvenir series, Memento paintings
- Current/last exhibition: Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zurich (February 27 – August 16, 2026) and forthcoming at Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Paris.
- Major collections: Works in public collections including Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, The Studio Museum in Harlem and other major institutions, as indicated by museum biographies.
- Awards: Recognized with honors including Honorary Royal Academician status at the Royal Academy of Arts in London and other institutional distinctions.
- Next date: currently no announced date in the 30-day window
Frequently asked questions about Kerry James Marshall
Where has Kerry James Marshall's survey exhibition The Histories been shown?
The exhibition Kerry James Marshall: The Histories has been staged at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, followed by Kunsthaus Zürich, with a Paris chapter at Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris announced as the next venue.
What kind of works are included in Kerry James Marshall: The Histories?
Institutional descriptions state that the show includes around seventy works, mainly paintings complemented by drawings, prints and some sculptural or installation elements, as well as eight new paintings made for the traveling exhibition.
Which themes does Kerry James Marshall address in his paintings?
Across series such as Garden Project and School of Beauty, School of Culture, Marshall focuses on Black life, representation in art history, civic spaces, and historical narratives like the Civil Rights movement and the transatlantic slave trade.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
