Jean-Michel Basquiat was standout from New York’s underground art scene, at the time of race riots, the AIDs epidemic, and a dizzying drug-fuelled creative counterculture. Now the Brooklyn born artist will be getting a UK exhibition in his honour, 28 years after his death.

The new artist retrospective will be held at London’s Barbican Centre in 2017, containing more than 100 works from Basquait’s short yet prolific career as a painter. Basquiat used his art to communicate and express sentiments of class struggle and racism, often incorporating street art elements and his African-Caribbean heritage into his Neo-expressionist paintings and self-portraits.

In the eighties, Basquait became the artistic protege and friend of pop artist Andy Warhol, who often guided Basquiat in his artistic career and struggles with heroine addiction, which sadly resulted in his death at the tender age of 27. The exhibit is set to open on September 21, and is sure to shine a spotlight on a legendary figure from New York’s contemporary golden age of art.