I have never to this day met anybody to compare Dejon Michel Vaskia.

He tore a page out of Malcolm X by any means necessary.

He was determined to become an artist no matter what that meant to get there.

Whether it was his music, whether it was his performance, whether it was the way he

danced, whether it was the way he dressed, whether it was the way he spoke, whether it

was the way he groomed his hair, you can see it all in his art and you feel it radiating

out from his work.

When you were with him, you felt special because he was in the moment with you.

There was a sense of self-containment and confidence and vision that came out of his face and

came out of his eyes that was spellbinding.

Jean Michel Vaskia is one of the most iconic American artists of the 20th century, known

for his bold, arresting, oftentimes, cryptic paintings.

He drew inspiration from world history, sports and jazz, his own sense of blackness and

Caribbean heritage to say something about society and his shifting, evolving place within

it.

He swiftly rose to fame on the downtown New York scene of the 1970s and 80s before his

untimely death in 1988, but the legacy he left behind continues to grow beyond measure.

In the decades since Vaskia, first made his debut on the art scene, his designs, like

his iconic 3-pointy crown, or his moody skulls, have flooded pop culture.

They're on $20 t-shirts and baseball caps at major fashion retailers and some of his

multi-million dollar original art pieces grace the homes of black celebrities, term collectors

like Beyoncé and Jay-Z, who recently appeared in a major ad campaign for Tiffany's alongside

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