Meet the 12-Year Old Artist Who Pays Tribute to Black Icons

Tyler Gordon is a 12-year-old self-taught artist that concentrates his work on Black culture and history. His works of art have paid tribute to the Central Park 5, Janet Jackson, Kevin Durant, Steve Harvey, Kevin Hart, and even the late Toni Morrison.

Based in San Jose, California, Tyler has won raving reviews and a lot of national attention for his masterpieces.

 A lot of the attention he gets has been centered around a backpack that he recently painted that pays tribute to the Central Park 5, whose story was recently told in a Netflix film called How They See Us.

 Tyler had the opportunity to meet these five individuals and says that he was much inspired. “I was very excited when I met them because they acted themselves, and I felt glad for them because they didn’t let [what happened to them] bring their whole lives down,” he said Because of Them We Can.

 He says he loves the story of triumph with Central Park 5 because he, too, had to overcome a significant setback. He was born deaf and was not able to speak until he turned 6-years old when he had a breakthrough surgery to infuse the bones behind his ears. He also sometimes is wheel-chair bound due to other health problems.

 But his setbacks have not stopped him from making international headlines for being able to create so much powerful art.