De La Vega shop opens

De La Vega is a painter and graffiti artist from Spanish Harlem who has been drawing slogans and cartoons in chalk on the sidewalks for years--he was doing it when I moved to New York in 98 or so and he's still doing it!

Not quite Keith Haring, not quite Jean-Michel Basquiat and not quite Jenny Holzer, he's got elements of all those artists and more.

I was heading down St. Mark's Place toward Tompkins Square Park tonight and noticed that there is a De La Vega shop now on the block by the park, selling shirts, books, paintings and other artworks with De La Vega's slogans and drawings on them.

Fate is weird, isn't it? Haring's shop is closing down and De La Vega's shop is opening up.

Jeff