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NELSON
BY ANNE TELFORD
Propped up on easels, Kadir Nelson’s large canvases give his Los Angeles loft the look of an upscale urban art gallery. A seven-foot by four-and-a-half-foot portrait of Michael Jackson dominates one wall of the airy, open space. A replica of the
original commissioned by Jackson, it was painted after his death and appeared on the cover of Michael, Jackson’s first posthumous album release. Sunlight streams through a panel of windows as puggles Midnight and Dakota nap on sanctioned rugs. A bicycle tree sprouts from the smooth concrete floor, and atop a large armoire sits an array of guitars belonging to Nelson’s girlfriend, Jungmiwha, a social justice scholar, political sociologist and avid philanthropist.
Nelson relocated to Los Angeles from San Diego five years ago and now lives and works in an area near downtown that is fast becoming a center of the arts. He has built an award-winning career on his portraits of cultural and music icons like Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Shirley Chisholm, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King and, perhaps most famously among today’s generation, Drake, for the 2013 Nothing Was the Same album cover, which garnered a lot of press attention. Nelson’s work has been exhibited throughout the country and can be found in the private collections of a who’s-who of music, film and sports figures. His clients include Sports Illustrated, Major League Baseball, the Coca-Cola Company and the United States Postal Service.
At the heart of Nelson’s work is a light that emanates outward, giving form and life to characters so real, rendered in such detail, that they appear as if they could step out of his paintings. He brings a modern sensibility to his art, but uses old-school methods to achieve the luminous quality found in his oil paintings. He meticulously builds up layers of oil paint, starting with pencil, then moving to oil wash, taking anywhere from one to three weeks to finish a canvas.
Nelson began drawing when he was about three years old. “I drew what kids like: cartoon characters and animals. I copied what I saw in comic books. As I grew older, I started drawing other things I was into—basketball, music, Egyptology,” he says.
Right: “The New Yorker cover painting Harlem on My Mind celebrates the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the civil rights movement, and Harlem’s rich history in the visual, literary and performing arts. I created a stylistic montage of images as an homage to great Harlem renaissance painters Aaron Douglas, William H. Johnson, Norman Lewis, Jacob Lawrence, Elizabeth Catlett, Horace Pippin, Henry Tanner, Archibald Motley and Palmer Hayden; performers the Nicholas Brothers; writers James Baldwin and Zora Neale Hurston; and activist Malcolm Shabazz.” Françoise Mouly, art director; The New Yorker, client.
42 Advertising Annual 2016