the club" meeting place for many, as well. Russack, Charles, Sheridan and Elegance devised a plan to open up the Lafayette Street side of Unique Clothing Warehouse and create a hangout area with a DJ and an orderly area to manage the distribution of nightclub flyers for Urban Works and other promoters. In 1993, Charles and Urban Works opened an office and studio space at 43 Bond Street in the emerging NOHO district of Manhattan. It was blocks away from this location that Charles created his homage to Jean-Michel Basquiat at the corner of Bond Street and Lafayette Street It was also on Bond Street that a friendship with the model, actress and activist Lauren Hutton began. Hutton noticed Charles work one morning on a gate across from her loft on Bond Street. Intrigued by the art, Hutton came into Urban Works to inquire about meeting the artist. Hutton became an intricate part of the Bond Street studio until it closed in 1997 and moved to Union Square. Charles output continued throughout the later 1990s and 2000s receiving commissions from Mountain Dew and Lands' End. With the mainstream work, Charles received criticism for "selling out", but Charles defended his choices. In a 2000 interview with Adweek Magazine, Charles was quoted as saying "Detractors say it's selling out, but at the same time, you're breaking boundaries. I want to open doors for other people who are struggling the way I struggled. … I'm going to make the new term 'selling in,' because I'm selling my ideas in that world, just like Warhol." 2000's By 2005, Charles was creating art for Donna Karan for her DKNY clothing line. References 1968 births American graffiti artists Living people Artists from New York City