Kadir Nelson is an award-winning American artist whose works have been exhibited in major national and international publications, institutions, art galleries and museums. Nelson earned a Bachelor’s degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and has since created paintings for a host of distinguished clients including Sports Illustrated, The Coca-Cola Company, The United States Postal Service, Major League Baseball and Dreamworks SKG, where he worked as a visual development artist creating concept artwork for feature films, “Amistad” and “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.”

Many of Nelson’s paintings are in the collections of notable institutions and public collections, including the U.S. House of Representatives and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, as well as in the private collections of actors, professional athletes and musicians. Nelson has also gained acclaim for the artwork he has contributed to several New York best-selling picture books including his authorial debut, “WE ARE THE SHIP: The Story of Negro League Baseball,” winner of the Coretta Scott King and Robert F. Sibert Awards, and was published by Disney/Hyperion in the spring of 2008.

Nelson’s cover artwork is featured on the album “MICHAEL,” by the late pop singer icon Michael Jackson, Jackson’s first posthumous album release. Nelson’s next literary effort, “Heart and Soul: The Story of America and African-Americans,” was published in the fall of 2011.

Nelson had created the work of art used for Drake's 2013 album Nothing Was the Same.

Artists, Visual Arts, Diversity, Black Heritage, Black History Month, Authors, Illustration, For Young Audiences, Literary Diversity Topics, Creativity,