Kerry James Marshall: A Counter-Archive of Black Presence Kerry James Marshall, born in Birmingham, Alabama, on October 17, 1955, is a towering figure in contemporary American art. His career, spanning decades and encompassing painting, prints, and sculpture, has fundamentally challenged conventional notions of representation within the Western artistic canon. More than simply depicting Black subjects, Marshall meticulously constructs a “counter-archive”—a deliberate effort to reclaim agency and visibility for African Americans, historically marginalized and often absent from dominant narrat…