You’ve probably seen Manny Vega’s work – you just might not know it.
The Bronx-born artist has created murals and mosaics that decorate the city: from storefronts in East Harlem to the subway stop at 110th Street and Lexington Avenue.
This year, he’s the first-ever artist in residence at the Museum of the City of New York.
The museum is showing some of Vega’s work in a special exhibit titled “Byzantine Bembé, New York by Manny Vega,” which draws on El Barrio’s culture and history as well as Vega’s Nuyorican roots.
Vega and the curator of his show, Monxo Lopez, spoke to Alison Stewart on a recent episode of “All of It.”
You can listen to their whole conversation here; an edited version is below.
Alison Stewart: Manny, what does it mean to you to be selected as the first-ever artist in residence?
Manny Vega: I’m extremely honored and not only because of the prestige of this museum, but they’re saluting me for being me. You know, in my “Manny-ness.”
And that’s a good message to send out to the art world – that I’m not chasing an art scene, that I’m just busy being me, being a happy Buddha in the streets of New York, and that New York has always been full of inspiration.
What’s your process for selecting materials when you begin a mosaic?
Vega: We as Puerto Ricans, especially in New York, we have a culture of hoarding.
Repurposing!
Vega: Repurposing, of living with these clutters, because somehow we know that it’s purposeful. I live amassing art supplies and having, literally, a conversation with the materials, where the actual materials themselves suggest to me what the next project is gonna be.
I work with synergy. “Synergy” meaning I work with the enthusiasm of the last project that I created. I mainly segue to the next project, And I live that way, and that’s why I’ve been so prolific. I don’t look back.
Monxo and his curators who came to my apartment, they were intrigued with that. And, you know, they made me stop for a second to turn around…
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