Al Diaz “We Were SAMO©”

Van Der Plas Gallery

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Two young, adventurous, penniless teens lived day to day and only for each day, taking in as much as life had to offer. Never concerned with the material, mundane or mediocre. SAMO©…AS AN ALTERNATIVE to BOOSH-WAH FANTASIES was one of the many defiant slogans they lived by. SAMO©…4-U was their war cry, convinced that theirs was the absolute only way! Few images remain from their days of marauding through the streets of Lower Manhattan in search of entertainment, love, laughs and free stuff. Some of the only images in existence of the two friends were captured by Al Díaz on an old Canon 35mm SLR he often carried. A handful of photos were shot in summer 1978 by an unknown photographer, and were fortunately preserved by Club 57 personality and friend, Natalya Maystrenko, who shared them some 30 years later.

Diaz’ latest mixed media work poetically makes use of these few mysterious images, telling the story of wayward high school friends and illustrating the brazen, irreverent spirit that he and Jean-Michel Basquiat expressed through their now historic partnership and SAMO©… graffiti writings.