Alumnus Vitus Shell (MFA studio art 08)
JANUARY 11, 2022
Artist Vitus Shell (MFA studio art 08) is on the cover of Louisiana Life Magazine’s January/February issue as Louisianian of the Year.
The mixed-media collage painter from Monroe, a visiting assistant professor at Louisiana Tech University, was selected for being a stand out in his profession who gives back and represents what’s best about the Pelican State.
The publication describes him as “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.’”
Shell explains: “My paintings are geared toward the Black experience, giving agency to people from this community through powerful image deconstruction, sampling and remixing identity, civil rights and contemporary Black culture. My artistic goal is to exude the hip-hop lifestyle with a Southern vernacular.
“In my art I’m trying to understand myself through community, through history, through family, through other people’s stories and through broader conversations within my black culture.”
The University of Mississippi alumnus has exhibited his paintings across the nation.