Kadir
Nelson |
Kadir
Nelson began drawing at age 3, displaying artistic
acumen before he could even
write or spell. "I have always been an artist," Nelson
explains. "It's part of my DNA." At age eleven,
Nelson was apprenticed by his uncle, an artist and
an art instructor. "My uncle gave me my foundation
in art," says the artist. Nelson experimented
with several different mediums and later began painting
in oils at age sixteen under the encouragement and
tutelage of his uncle and his high school art teacher. |
He
began entering his paintings in art competitions and ultimately
won an art scholarship to study at the prestigious Pratt Institute
of Brooklyn, NY. Upon graduating with honors, Nelson began
his professional career as an artist, publishing his works
and receiving commissions from publishers and production studios
such as Dreamworks, Nike, Sports Illustrated, Coca-Cola, The
New York Times, The New Yorker and Major League Baseball, among
others.
Nelson also exhibited his works in galleries and museums
throughout the United States and abroad including the Simon
Weisenthal Center, Museum of Tolerance and the Academy of
Motion Pictures and Sciences in Los Angeles, The Museum of
African American History in Detroit, The Negro League Baseball
Museum in Kansas City, The Society of Illustrators and the
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, The Bristol Museum in
England, The Citizen's Gallery of Yokohama, Japan and the
Center for Culture of Tijuana, Mexico.
Many of his paintings can be found in the
private collections of actors, sports figures and musicians
including Debbie
Allen, Jalen Rose, Spike Lee, Terry Lewis, Venus Williams,
Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith and Ice Cube. His paintings
have also decorated the sets of television sitcoms "The
Fresh Prince of Bel Air" and "The Jamie Foxx Show," as
well as feature films "Friday" and "Set it
Off." Most notably, Nelson was the "Conceptual
Artist" for Steven Spielberg's feature film, "Amistad," and
the animated feature "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron."
Recently, Nelson collaborated with several authors on a
series of picture books. Presently, eight children's books
are in print including Debbie Allen's DANCING IN THE WINGS,
Deloris and Roslyn Jordan's SALT IN HIS SHOES, PLEASE, BABY,
PLEASE, by Spike and Tonya Lewis Lee and Will Smith's JUST
THE TWO OF US, for which Nelson won an NAACP Image Award.
Currently, Nelson is planning a tribute book about the Negro
Baseball Leagues.
Although Nelson works in a variety of styles,
he always retains a sense of identity and focus in his
work. Nelson's
work is instantly recognizable by the emotion and strength
of his varied subject matter. "My work is all about
healing and giving people a sense of hope and nobility. I
want to show the strength and integrity of the human spirit." That
is exactly the feeling one walks away with after viewing
one of Nelson's paintings--a feeling that runs all the way
down to your DNA.
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