Kadir Nelson is an award-winning American artist and author based in Southern California. A graduate of Pratt Institute, he began his career as a visual development artist for DreamWorks Pictures, contributing to Oscar® nominated films Amistad and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. Nelson has since created artwork for clients including Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, National Geographic, the United States Postal Service, and Sony Music—most notably painting the cover of Michael Jackson’s posthumous album Michael. His powerful, figurative oil paintings frequently appear on the cover of The New Yorker, honoring American culture and history. His painting Say Their Names, a tribute to George Floyd, was named the most viral magazine cover of 2020 by Adweek. Nelson has received accolades from the American Library Association, the Art Directors Club, and the Society of Illustrators—including the Hamilton King Award and the 2020 Randolph Caldecott Medal for The Undefeated. He has authored and/or illustrated over thirty picture books, including WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball, If You Plant a Seed, and the forthcoming BASKET BALL: The Story of the All-American Game (2026). Nelson’s richly painted works, grounded in American realism and neo-mannerism, are held in the permanent collections of the U.S. House of Representatives, The National Baseball Hall of Fame, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and the Smithsonian.
Art credit: Kadir Nelson, American Uprising, Rolling Stone, July 2020. Oil on panel.