Manny Vega

Manny Vega‘s murals and mosaics have been a vibrant and highly visible part of the East Harlem community for many years. His installation, “A Romance with Drawing,” is composed of seven intricate ink drawings produced over the past ten years. The series represents the artist’s personal search for his own unique identity, as a fiercely independent New York-born artist of Puerto Rican and African descent.

Each character reflected in the drawings has a story that relates to the artist´s experiences growing up and living in New York City. Characters included here range from the famous Latin jazz musician, Chano Pozo, to the capoerista Loremil Machado, to a very young Manny Vega on a NY winter morning. Vega’s presence as an iconic artist in the area has served to create a visual documentary of the changing neighborhoods of Harlem.