Angels Save the City features two distinct, but related, scenes. Above, vertical bands incarcerate three purple angels hovering overhead. Below, Purvis Young depicts euphoric liberation, represented by riderless horses and celebrating figures rendered as fingerpainted squiggles.

Young’s work chronicles his personal view of Overtown, Miami’s historically Black neighborhood and his home. Reviving throwaway items like scavenged lumber and plywood found in the neighborhood to become his canvas, he marries subject with surface.