Vitus Shell says, “for me, my work has to say something about change.” Through his work, Shell has become a spokesperson for the low-income community in which he was raised, promoting conversations that would normally go unheard or be ignored by outsiders. Positive self-image is one of his major talking points, which is why it’s important to him that his works reach beyond galleries and museums, especially to connect with African-American college students.

His paintings focus public attention on a long dormant subject that has become as relevant today as it was in the troubled 1960s. Three themes drive that message — irony, activism and his notion of black coolness.“