Erni Vales, The Blackbook Sessions,American Salon, 2004
This Lower East Side talent honed his skills at The High School of Art and Design before moving to the sides of NYC subway cars over 25 years ago. These experiences have allowed Erni Vales to utilize his unique graffiti-influenced style to create numerous artistic opportunities in Hollywood, photography, nightclubs and restaurants around the country, CD covers, graphic illustration – the list goes on. Everyone has seen something designed by Erni Vales at some point in time.
“None of us knew then what it would someday become”, says Vales.
Vales’ artwork has appeared on sets behind, around, on or above Elton John, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Lil’ Kim, and Eminem, to name a handful. Director Hype Williams has used Erni’s style to art direct several commercials and videos. The artist has created backdrops for the Whitney Museum Lobby Associates, stage designs for the Sony Jazz Festival, and rock group Hootie and The Blowfish. Mercury Records houses one of his spectacular metal sculptures in the lobby of its corporate headquarters and The Experience Music Project in Seattle had Erni design the Hip Hop section of its rock-and-roll museum.
Vales, a self taught interior designer, is the creative force behind spaces like Freight in NYC, and most recently, 13 Little Devils in the Lower East Side. He is currently redesigning the former mega nightclub Exit to its new incarnation as Black…<…>
