Community Service

De La Vega photo by Ryan Kobane

culture

34 tgmlink.com | February 2009

artist profile: James De La Vega

T

o his loyal fans he is the Dadaist of the moment, an innovator of today’s counter-culture. For others, most notably the nypd, he is the vandal who desecrates public space with his art. People’s champion or public enemy number one, it is impossible to overlook James De La Vega.

New York’s Spanish Harlem is De La Vega’s gallery. His murals animate the stone corridor of Lexington Avenue between 104th and 106th Streets. This outdoor catalogue raisonne includes a litany of thought-provoking quotes and a pair of brick wall shrines for the Salsa Queen Celia Cruz and Nuyorican poet laureate Pedro Pietri.

This beautiful spectrum represents El Barrio.

Its works like these that De La Vega uses to entice many artistic dilettantes south of 96th Street into his universe – often prompting their maiden voyage on the multi-lingual 6 Train.

Although praise from fans and the press has been favorable, De La Vega is not motivated by these spoils.

“I like to agitate people,” De La Vega says between long tokes of his cigar. “When I step into their world, they have to pay attention.” His artwork graces sidewalks, asphalt at intersections and pieces of bulk trash. Any flat surface is fair game. In fact, some of these surfaces are now being appraised and sold on the international art market. It’s alleged that Christie’s, the high-end auctioning house, sold a bench tattooed with De La Vega’s graffiti for $2,500 in 2004. He’ll dismiss it as folklore if you ask. “I’ll never tell the most I sold a piece for,” he says. “You can’t put a price on the true worth of an art piece.” Art critics and collectors disagree and many are placing him in the same light as artistic visionaries Anibal Padrino, Keith Haring and Jean Michel Basquiat. Unfazed by the comparison, De La Vega nonchalantly shrugs his shoulders and takes another gulp of Arnold Palmer’s Half-and-Half.

Words are De La Vega’s weapons of choice. His arsenal of insightful one-liners forces pedestrians to notice his craft. Become Your Dream is the tagline that fuels De La Vega’s creation.

According to his website: “I started to write inspirational quotes on the ground as a way to

Community Service

give people hope. I wanted to encourage others to really think about themselves and their dreams.”

In a city where a ceo’s signature can overshadow an artist’s boldest strokes, De La Vega remains in touch with the people. The artist is the portrait.

On a warm evening, you can see him catching a breeze with Joe De La Heyman, his creative partner in crime, in front of his Lower East Side galleria. Their dialogue is open to all passersby. The conversations often range from the philosophical to the ironically humorous. For an artist who inscribes quotes everywhere, De La Vega is a man of very few words. He flashes a child-like smile in his moments of silence.

When he laughs, you can see his eyes widen behind tinted sunglasses. The cigar burns slow.

Reclining in his lawn chair, he favors a young and satiated Fidel Castro with a fresh pair of white Nike Air Force Ones. The wardrobe is merely the façade of a genius who knows how to create amidst conflict.

De La Vega’s academic resume is as impressive as is his growing portfolio. He attended both the prestigious York Preparatory School and later Cornell University to pursue a degree in fine arts. He joined the community service group La Unidad Latina as a brother of Lamda Upsilon Lamda Fraternity, Inc. After graduating from Cornell in 1994, De La Vega taught Puerto Rican History at the Central Park East Secondary School in Manhattan. It was at this time when he started offering his art to the public. “I just had this idea of talking to people through my work,” he says. “The more I kept putting up a mural here or a saying somewhere else, more people kept responding to it. You had some who didn’t like what I was doing, but that comes with anything in life.” From the classroom to the street corner, De La Vega gave his best to El Barrio when it was at its worst.

During the mid-to-late 1990’s, Spanish Harlem had its share of quandaries. Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s blind eye gave raise to a decrepit education system, growing drug problem and gentrification. Seeing the change, De La Vega took action. His murals and quotations became the catalyst for dialogue amongst residents. Some comical: Even Fidel Is A Yankee.

Some dark: Many Of Us Are Helpless Sheep

Amongst Ferocious Wolves. Others social: This Neighborhood Is No Longer Yours. In the era of post-Giulianism, De La Vega continued to be a fixture in Spanish Harlem when he opened his galleria in the community. Patrons flocked from all over to the Fishtank, on Lexington Avenue, to see the work he was now putting on canvas. The vehicle for expression was becoming the career.

On the way to becoming an international art phenomenon and neighborhood legend, De La Vega met New York’s Finest at the crossroads.

In July 2003, the artist was arrested and charged with vandalism in the Bronx. At the April 2004 trial, the dialogue between De La Vega and Judge Joseph Dawson focused on language. De La Vega half-hearted agreed that he would acquiesce to the charges if the court would change the language of the misdemeanor from “vandalism” to “making graffiti-art”. “Look at what I do,” pointing at the various quotations he wrote on the sidewalk in front of his galleria. “I’m not tagging up a train with non-sense or writing all over someone’s picture. Just using what the city gives me – that’s all.” Judge Dawson begged to differ. He was sentenced to a month in jail and fifty hours of community service.

The notoriety the trial produced actually benefitted De La Vega. Numerous rallies were held in his defense. He became a prominent figure in the ongoing debate between art and legislation. “I just find it funny. Art is New York’s cash cow and they do everything to erase it,” De La Vega says after eating a veggie dumpling from the bistro next door. “Most artists can’t even make a living off of what they’re good at.” De La Vega, luckily, is surviving this epidemic.

He chuckles when asked how business has been since he moved downtown. It’s elementary.

His transition from Spanish Harlem’s residential setting to the Lower East Side artistic hub is paying off. “Just because I’m from uptown doesn’t mean I have to live and die there,” De La Vega states. “Plus, they love me down here.” His galleria is a treasure chest of t-shirts, paintings and other pieces of art that are done in house.

Looking beyond the financial success, De La Vega is not allowing the trappings of stardom to make him forget his initial purpose. “I use art to bring people together.” by laurence bass

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