Kadir Nelson Art Prints

Kadir Nelson began drawing at the age of three, displaying artistic acumen before he could 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 Michael Morris, an artist and art instructor. “My uncle gave me my foundation in art,” says the artist. Nelson experimented with several different media and later began painting in oils at the age of sixteen under the encouragement and tutelage of both his uncle and high school art teacher. He began entering his paintings in art competitions and ultimately won an art scholarship to study at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. Upon graduating with honors, Nelson began his professional career as an artist, publishing his work and receiving commissions from publishers and production studios such as Dreamworks, Sports Illustrated, Coca-Cola, The New York Times and Major League Baseball, among others. Nelson also exhibited his work in galleries and museums throughout the country 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 Smithsonian Anacostia Museum in Washington DC, 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.