Louisianian of the Year | Artist
Monroe artist Vitus Shell is a remarkable artist who explores the African-American experience through strong, compelling and often unsettling images of Black contemporary life in America. It is art driven by irony, activism and his notion of Black “coolness.” Monroe artist Vitus Shell is a remarkable artist who explores the African-American experience through strong, compelling and often unsettling images of Black contemporary life in America. It is art driven by irony, activism and his notion of Black “coolness.” Born in Monroe in 1978, Shell, who has taught art at the University of Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Tech University and Grambling State University, holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the Memphis College of Art where he and other artists formed a collective that launched his career and those of other African-American artists. “My paintings,” says Shell, “are geared toward the Black experience, giving agency to people from this community through powerful image deconstru