Michael Vasquez
Smurf, 2005
mixed media on canvas
36 x 24 inches
Collection of Andrew Reed, Miami, FL

At first glance, the individuals portrayed in Michael Vasquez’s paintings may appear to be stereotypical thugs, urban youth, or gang members. All the usual visual clues are present: young males throwing up gang signs, flashing colors, sporting fancy “bling” or “ice,” gripping quarts of Colt 45 malt liquor, and posturing in ways that could be interpreted as confident or even intimidating. But to read these paintings as overtly glorifying urban gang culture is to disregard the conceptual weight and artistic intention of Vasquez’s oeuvre.  Autobiographical in nature, these paintings pay sincere homage to formative relationships in the artist’s youth, relationships that supplanted those of a more traditional family. They not only portray a subculture and lifestyle familiar to Vasquez, they also encourage a critical discourse on family values and the social construction of identity, set against a backdrop of the contested histories and mythologies of urban street gangs.

Currently based in Miami, Florida, Vasquez creates bold, provocative portraits with confident, bravura brushwork reflecting the turbulent lifestyles and urban surroundings of his subjects. Schooled at South Florida’s acclaimed New World School of the Arts and working in the traditional genre of portraiture, Vasquez is aware of the classical trappings associated with representing the human figure, from identity politics to the valorization and memorialization of the sitter. Historically, portrait painting honored and immortalized important individuals, fixing the sitter’s identity and reinforcing their wealth and power. Since the 1970s, postmodernists have reconsidered that interpretation, disputing the claim of a fixed identity and arguing that one’s sense of self is socially constructed—informed and diversified by shared histories and sociopolitical contexts. While reminiscent of the works of the urban realist painters of the Ashcan School who found inspiration in the energy and everyday people of New York City, Vasquez’s canvases also call to mind the portrait paintings of his contemporaries Kehinde Wiley and Conor McGrady and their complex explorations of power, masculinity, and urban street culture.

While remaining true to its subject, the visual vocabulary within Vasquez’s portraits plays into the stereotypical image of the urban gang member and its negative, oftentimes villainous connotations, drawing attention away from the individual and dehumanizing the poverty, poor education, violence, and fatherlessnesss that often lead to gang participation. Street gangs in America have been a societal product of changes in immigration, urbanization, and ethnicity, typically developing in plighted urban areas that are socially, economically, and politically isolated from mainstream society.1 For many young men in particular, a gang is the assurance of loyal relationships, solidarity, and protection from others who might disrupt their bond.

The subjects of Vasquez’s paintings are just this type of close, loyal friends, whom the artist knew on the city streets of St. Petersburg, Florida, in the mid-1990s. Slightly older and more street savvy than he was at that time, these young men were affiliated with the street gang known as the Young Bloods (YBs)—a set loosely aligned with the larger United Blood Nation, which was founded in 1993 and grew into an umbrella title for Blood sets nationwide. Over time, these individuals accepted Vasquez into their group and he, as an only child raised by a single mother, in turn began to depend not only on their companionship but also on the patriarchal structure of the gang. Through his relationships with the gang’s members, Vasquez adopted core values such as respect, loyalty, and responsibility that, according to the artist, provided a much-needed sense of “manhood.” In many ways, the YBs served as an extension of Vasquez’s family by providing surrogate father figures who performed strong, developmental roles in his life.

In his recent series Friendly Fatherly Figures, Vasquez pays tribute to the members of the gang who functioned as both friends and authority figures during his adolescence. In the mixed-media paintings Smurf and Biscayne B Geezy (both 2005), Vasquez captures two of his young African American friends employing the ubiquitous signs and visual rhetoric associated with gang culture. Goldchains, rings, and watches are coupled with wads of “Benjamins” ($100 bills), signifying prestige, power, and money—important social codes that help solidify rank and respect on the streets. Articles of red clothing—a color with a litany of associations, from nobility, power, and good luck to aggression, violence, and death—clearly identify them as Bloods.

The histories, the streetwise social codes and belief systems, and the mythic nature of violence are prime fodder for Vasquez’s latest series of paintings, titled The Upholding and Protection of the Crown (2007), where he examines the internal hierarchy and the live-by-die-by principles that formed the foundation of the Young Bloods. Consisting of five large-scale portraits, the series portrays members of the gang and important gang-related iconography that addresses the association of the number “5” with the United Blood Nation.2 Reminiscent of European Renaissance paintings informed by myriad visual symbols to create a historical, religious story, Vasquez’s paintings explore the grand narrative of the five “points” of the crown or star. According to the artist, each point on the crown represents one of five principles—justice, freedom, peace, truth, and love—that gang members were to embrace and live by to improve their quality of life.

The central and the highest point on the crown is represented in Vasquez’s The High Point of Peace. As the centerpiece for this series, Vasquez portrays the gang’s leader, Ro, as the personification of the most cherished of the five principles. Inked with tattoos and wearing a red T-shirt, Ro stands stoically as he flashes two LK (Latin King) hand signs that are joined together to form the symbolic five-point crown. His stern, piercing gaze exudes power, confidence, and fearlessness—qualities essential for a leader’s ability to maintain group solidarity and peace.

Ro’s portrait is flanked on the left by The Home State Buckle of Freedom and The Mouth Piece of Truth on the right. The representative figure of freedom is adorned by a miniature Florida license plate, referencing the YBs’ pride and respect for their home state and their freedom to do what they desire in their territory. Functioning as a piece of jewelry, the plate also suggests clout, power, and financial success. Similar to Ro, the figure sports a red shirt and a red hat that is positioned to the left, an important signifier of the individual’s gang affiliation. The figure in The Mouth Piece of Truth stands back with his arms thrust forward gesturing the five-point star with his hands. Seemingly proud and confrontational, he grits a red bandana between his teeth, again marking his affiliation with the Bloods.

The outer points of the crown, which literally and symbolically protect the inner points from harm, are represented by The Red Mask of Justice (on the far left) and The Sign Placement of Love (on the far right). The male figure in the latter painting gestures YB hand signs and wears his hat slightly angled to the left to reaffirm the set’s identity. His right hand is subtly placed over his heart, signaling an eternal love for the gang and his fellow members. Justice is represented by a shirtless figure masked by a red bandana. While expressing gang affiliation with his hands, the figure’s identity is disguised and therefore anonymous, symbolizing that justice is shared by the entire group.  The figure’s menacing eyes hint at the reality that, on the streets, justice is constantly sought and frequently obtained through intimidation and violence.

Vasquez’s series The Upholding and Protection of the Crown presents the internal hierarchy and principles that form the foundation of the Young Bloods. Each painting not only examines a specific social code, but also reveals details of the gang and its members’ lifestyle. Vasquez’s thick, fast, and expressive brush strokes seem to attack the canvas, imbuing each painting with a heightened sense of aggression that mirrors the attitudes inherent to gang culture. This allusion to power and dominance is directed not only toward rival gangs, but also to non–gang members and social/cultural power structures that might threaten or challenge their lifestyle and environment.

Like most of Vasquez’s portraits, these paintings are derived from numerous photographs that he took of his sitters in familiar, comfortable settings to allow the subjects to “stay real.” While the painted figures are an amalgamation of those photographs, the backgrounds are constructed and decontextualized. Reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s all-over “action” paintings—often considered an aesthetic of physical violence—Vasquez’s backgrounds are built up with aggressive bursts of reds and whites, echoing the explosive energy and intense pressures of the street. Stray, vivid shots of spray paint introduce elements of immediacy, chance, and freedom. A true medium of the street, spray paint calls to mind graffiti art and gang-related tags marking protected territories, aptly alluding to the lifestyle and culture of urban gangs.

Interpreting Michael Vasquez’s paintings includes acknowledging their intrinsic paradox. These portraits of street gang members, in the end, underscore the same value system that shapes the traditional, nuclear family—one that honors justice, freedom, peace, truth, love, and ultimately, respect for authority figures.

—Christopher Cook, Curator

1. To date, most research on street gangs comprises theories drawn from field research and diverse interviews with former and current gang members. The information culled from these interviews is often vague, contradictory, and inconclusive, thus charting the formation and spread of gangs is a complicated task. For a general introduction to early studies on the origins and developments of street gangs in the United States see Scott H. Decker and Barrik Van Winkle’s Life in the Gang: Family, Friends, and Violence (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996).

2. Vasquez has conducted extensive research on the history and signficance of the number “5,” and although it is widely acknowledged that many Blood sets in the United States pay tribute to “5,” its true association with the Bloods is disputed. Many argue that the number association was appropriated from the People’s Nation (a confederation of Latin Kings, Cobras, Vice Lords, Bishops, and others) by Omar Portee, one of the founders of the UBN.