Kadir Nelson is a talented, prolific, accomplished artist. I became aware of his work because of his New Yorker and Rolling Stone covers, which are… just… breathtaking. In addition to his incredible skills as a painter, his narrative chops are second to none.
He has a website, with a gallery and store: https://www.kadirnelson.com/
In 2022, the Norman Rockwell Museum curated an exhibition titled “In Our Lifetime: Paintings from the Pandemic by Kadir Nelson.”
He has written and/or illustrated a number of children’s books (autographed copies available).
And he painted what is, quite possibly, the best bookstore poster of all time (in my humble opinion):
Norman Rockwell was able to create self-contained visual narratives, using incredible drawing and painting skills. I would argue that Norman Rockwell was good at showing us what we already knew, sometimes even when we didn’t want to know it. That is a very particular, very specific skill. It is rare, and it is special.
Kadir Nelson is wholly original, artistically — he is one of a kind — but I think he does a similar kind of narrative work, with a similar skillset, and that his work is incredibly important in our time.
Carmen Yount 