Charly "Carlos" Palmer is an Americanfine artist. Palmer was born in Fayette, Alabama and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and receiving a degree from the American Academy of Art. Palmer's subjects have included landscapes and portraits. Primarily an acrylic painter, Palmer also works in a variety of media. Palmer created the 1996 Olympic Poster, and again in 1998 the US Olympic Committee honored Palmer by selecting him to paint the US Olympic Poster for the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. He has mentored several artists, including Tamara Natalie Madden. He has exhibited at the African American Museum of Southern New Jersey, Just Lookin' Gallery, Spence Gallery, and in many other museums and galleries throughout the country. Palmer was the 2018 recipient of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Illustrator Award for the book Mama Africa!: How Miriam Makeba Spread Hope with Her Song, written by Kathryn Erskine. Since then, Charly Palmer has illustrated for children's books such as; The Teachers March! How Selma's Teachers Changed History, My Rainy Day Rocket Ship, There's a Dragon in My Closet, and I Can Right the World. Kirkus Reviews called Palmer's illustrations In I Can Right the World, " striking" and "painterly" He has also done the cover art for the books The Sociology of W. E. B. Du Bois: Racialized Modernity and the Global Color Line by Karida L. Brown and Jose Itzigsohn, Gone Home: Race and Roots Through Appalachia by Karida L. Brown, All Boys Aren't Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto, by George M. Johnson Palmer has spoken at UCLA as one of the Regents Lecturers for the African American Studies Department. In his lecture he talked bout the importance of using art to not only express yourself but impact political society and how important it is to use the voice you have. Notably, Palmer did the cover art work for John Legend's Bigger Love. For the cover, he was inspired by trips to South Africa and beautiful black people. As apart of the Black Lives Matter movement, Charly Palmer was selected to do the July 2020 cover for the acclaimed Time Magazine, where he also wrote an article about the piece. Also apart of the Black Lives Matter movement, Palmer's piece "Speak with Confidence" was posted by Selena Gomez as apart of her initiative to spread the works and voices of black leaders. Charly Palmer's most famous quote is "Art should change the temperature of the room" He currently lives in Atlanta with his spouse Karida L. Brown and daughter Gwyneth. You can inquire about his art at
