Jeridandridge

[Shares and comments are welcome 🩶]

"The original literary vampires represented carnal knowledge. At their foundation, whether we're looking at Stoker, Polidori, Carmilla, vampires represent a defiance of societal gender and sexual norms. They represent a rejection of conformity, of the default, and specifically of heteronormative and prudish structures." -V.E. Schwab

Keith Haring's story is usually told as a solo rise, but that version leaves out Angel "LA II" Ortiz, a Puerto Rican artist from the Lower East Side who collaborated with Haring from the very beginning. Angel was a teenager when they met, already active in the neighborhood's graffiti culture. He taught Keith how tagging worked on the street, painted alongside him, and guided him through spaces Keith did not come from. Angel's tags, infill, and visual language appear across works that later became associated with Keith Haring's public legacy.

After Keith Haring's death, the story changed. Museums mounted exhibitions, publishers released books, and merchandise entered the market under a single name.