Hip-hop star Sean Combs made this artist a record setter. Now his works to be displayed in Vancouver

Kerry James Marshall has been making art for the past 40 years, but lately his fame has been exploding.

Hip-hop mogul Sean Combs, also known by stage namesDiddyand Puff Daddy, recently purchased one of his works, Past Times, for $21.1 million at auction, which is reportedly the most ever paid for a work by a living African-American artist.

Another one of Marshall's admirers is Vancouver condo kingpin Bob Rennie, whose Rennie Museum will be displaying a retrospective of Marshall's works held in his personal collection.

"It's at times unsettling. Destabilizing," Marshall told On The Coast guest host Angela Sterritt about the record-setting auction.

"Everyone pays attention to that price and those numbers, but for me, I've been working for more than 40 years and the numbers are not the things that drives the work that I make."

Marshall says he is appreciative of the price his work has fetched, but big prices have never been his goal. "I'm trying to make the best work that I can make," he said.

In a statement, Rennie praised Marshall's "unique and powerful perspective on African American life and important historical events."

His work often tackles issues related to the civil rights movement, social injustice, race and popular culture and he is best known for his paintings and sculptures.

Relevant to Canada's history

One work that will be in the Vancouver exhibit, Heirlooms and Accessories, features three modified historical photos showing the lynching of two black men in Indiana in 1930, and the white crowd that came to view and participate in the crime.

"The people who participated, ... arrived at those things as if it were some kind of a carnival," Marshall explained. "Nobody was concerned about having their picture taken in the photograph."

Marshall says his goal was to highlight how the spectators were so unconcerned about any legal consequences for the double murder of black men that they were willing to pose for a photo.

And while he aims to expose the way the U.S. was built on the oppression of black people, he says those themes ring true for the history of Canada as well.

"[Canada] didn't get here without some violence," he said. "There was the First Nations population that was displaced, just like there was a population in the [United States] who were also displaced."

The exhibit, Kerry James Marshall: Collected Works can be seen at the Rennie Museum from June 2 to Nov. 3.

Listen to the full interview:

With files from CBC Radio One's On The Coast