Ludovic Nkoth
Miles Davis Centennial Edition
Dropping Tuesday 14 July at 10 AM ET
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The Project
To mark the centennial celebration of the legendary Miles Davis,
Dropshop is proud to release an exquisite limited-edition screenprint by contemporary artist Ludovic Nkoth, created in collaboration with global independent music company Reservoir and the Miles Davis Estate. With imagery drawn from an original painting commissioned for this project, this editioned portrait captures Miles away from the spotlight, immersed in the creative process. The result is both a technical achievement and a fitting tribute to the creative legacy of one of the most transformative figures in modern culture.
Rather than depicting Davis inperformance, Ludovic Nkoth renders Miles Davis in his thirties, away from the stage and within the space where creation often begins: moments of pause.Nkoth wanted to paint the stillness within a life of abundant relentless invention; those intervals between decisions, between notes, and between transformations. Seated in his studio, Miles appears deep in thought, processing, planning, and daydreaming. As an artist, Nkoth believes much of the work happens in these quiet, contemplative moments. The painting centers that interior space where new ideas take shape, presenting Miles not simply as a musician, but as a creator at work.
Throughout a career spanning five decades, Miles Davis continually redefined the possibilities of jazz while influencing fashion, visual art, design, and culture at large. A fearless innovator, his legacy is one of constant transformation, driven by an unwavering commitment to exploration and originality. Nkoth's portrait honors this spirit by presenting Davis not only as a legendary musician, but as a creator engaged in the invisible work from which great ideas emerge.
Comprising more than seventy individually hand-pulled colors, this extraordinary edition faithfully translates Nkoth's richly layered painting into a masterful screenprint, printed with Marginal Editions in New York with each layer carefully registered to capture the depth, luminosity, and painterly detail of the original work.
Ludovic Nkoth
Miles Davis, 2026
Edition of 50
70-color screenprint on 300 gsm Coventry Rag paper
30 x 24 in. (76.2 x 61 cm)
$2,500, unframed
©Ludovic Nkoth
The Artist
Ludovic Nkoth (b. 1994), born in Cameroon, channels the tension of displacement and domesticity into his paintings, often reflecting the complexities of his own transatlantic migration. His compositions frame subjects in pensive, introspective moments, capturing a liminal space that exists between pain and progress, grief and possibility. Whether hazy, nostalgic, or sumptuously surreal, Nkoth’s world feels both familiar and strange—a place where no one performs for anyone but themselves. His work is deeply rooted in a uniquely Black vision of the mundane, offering intimate glimpses into the everyday that are both personal and universal.
In his earlier works, the myth of the ocean liner as a symbol of romance and leisure is reimagined from the outsider’s perspective, revealing the complexities of the diaspora experience. Having moved to the U.S. at the age of 13, Nkoth’s art explores the raw tensions of African-American life, marked by a constant negotiation between belonging and alienation. His paintings intentionally blur the line between fragmentation and wholeness, depicting figures that feel simultaneously incomplete and fully realized. Although formally figurative, his works are not meant to be realistic; instead, they focus on the nuances that emerge from the generalizations imposed by the migration experience. Through this, Nkoth delves into the internal contradictions of identity and the potential for self-determination, kinship, and solidarity within the diaspora. Throughout his work, his figures participate in the fictions and lived experiences that comprise his own identity synthesis; each muddled expression and porous boundary imbues his paintings with the tender incandescence of a distant memory.
Ludovic Nkoth lives and works in New York City. Nkoth completed his BFA at the University of South Carolina, and holds an MFA in painting from Hunter College. Selected solo and group exhibitions include Maison La Roche, Paris, France; FLAG Art Foundation, New York, USA; François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, USA; Simões de Assis, São Paulo, Brazil; Pond Society, Shanghai, China; Massimo de Carlo, London, UK; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, USA; Ross + Kramer, New York, USA; Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, USA; and Luce Gallery, Turin, Italy. Nkoth’s work is held in the collection of the Yuz Museum, Shanghai, China.
©Phillips Auctioneers LLC
"I wanted to paint the stillness within a life of abundant relentless invention, those intervals between decisions, between notes, between transformations."
—Ludovic Nkoth
Miles Davis
Miles Davis (1926-1991) fundamentally reshaped modern music across five decades of relentless reinvention. From pioneering bebop and cool jazz to defining hard bop, modal improvisation, and electric fusion, Davis treated each genre breakthrough as a starting point rather than a destination. His discography reads like a timeline of jazz's evolution: Birth of the Cool, Kind of Blue (the best-selling jazz album of all time), Sketches of Spain, In a Silent Way, Bitches Brew, and dozens more albums that continue to define both the essence and the outer limits of improvised music.
Davis's genius extended beyond composition and performance. His studio innovations with producer Teo Macero established templates for modern music production. His ensembles functioned as talent accelerators, launching the careers of John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, and countless others who would themselves become legends. His influence spans generations: he remains one of the most sampled artists in hip-hop, with his recordings serving as foundations for Kendrick Lamar, Madlib, and A Tribe Called Quest.
His accolades include eight Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, eleven recordings in the Grammy Hall of Fame, induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, stars on both the Hollywood and St. Louis Walks of Fame, and a Congressional resolution honoring Kind of Blue's 50th anniversary in 2009.
Beyond music, Davis established himself as a style icon (#1 on GQ's Most Stylish Musicians of All Time), visual artist (paintings exhibited across four continents), and symbol of artistic independence. In 2012, the U.S. Postal Service honored his legacy with a commemorative stamp, cementing his status as an American cultural monument.
Courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment.
Marginal Editions
Founded by Brad Ewing in 2007, Marginal Editions is currently located in New York, New York, with previous locations across the tri-state area. Marginal Edition’s work expands the definition of a fine art print using a range of printing techniques, including letterpress, silkscreen, pochoir, linoleum, and woodcut, and often combines collage and pencil, among other elements. Prints made in collaboration with Marginal Editions are included in the permanent collections of the RISD Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art.
Currently, Marginal collaborates with Mae Shore at Shore Publishing on a variety of contract printing. Recent projects include prints with important contemporary artists including Mickalene Thomas, Edgar Plans, Nicholas Party, David Kennedy Cutler, Sascha Braunig, María Berrío, Derrick Adams and Ross Bleckner.
©Phillips Auctioneers LLC