The Histories: Kerry James Marshall at the Royal Academy of Arts
This autumn, the Royal Academy of Arts in London will present The Histories, the largest exhibition of Kerry James Marshall’s work ever shown in the United Kingdom. Running from 20 September 2025 through 18 January 2026, the exhibition offers audiences an extraordinary opportunity to experience the vision of one of the most influential painters working today.
Marshall has long been recognized for redefining the place of Black figures in the Western tradition of painting. His monumental canvases and murals bring Black life to the center of the story, challenging the historical absence of these subjects in the art that shaped cultural memory. His paintings are lyrical, strikingly vivid, and often expansive in scale, inviting viewers into a world that merges history, personal experience, and collective imagination.
The artist draws on a wide spectrum of influences that range from Renaissance and Baroque picture-making to comics, science fiction, and the struggles and triumphs of the civil rights movement. Everyday moments, private memories, and dreams of the future all find their place in his work, creating a layered commentary on past and present while envisioning possibilities ahead.
Organized thematically, The Histories will bring together 70 works, including a new series created especially for this exhibition. Among the highlights is Knowledge and Wonder (1995), a monumental commission originally made for the Chicago Public Library, which has never before traveled outside the United States. Also featured will be Wake, a commemorative sculpture that evolves each time it is shown, underscoring Marshall’s ongoing dialogue with history and its resonance in the present.
The Royal Academy is presenting the exhibition in collaboration with the Kunsthaus Zürich and the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, where the survey will travel in 2027. Friends of the Royal Academy will have exclusive preview access from 17 to 19 September before the exhibition opens to the public.
With The Histories, London audiences will encounter Marshall’s powerful celebration of Black presence and possibility on a scale never before seen in the UK.
