Best known in the street art movement for his ubiquitous and iconic flower image, artist Michael De Feo has been creating illegal works on the streets for more than 20 years in more than 40 international cities including New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Cabo San Lucas, Amsterdam, Paris, Venice, Buenos Aires, Panama City and Hong Kong. Although his flower is the only image he repeats in his street art, Michael has created a variety of other works in the public sphere.
Not limited to the streets as his canvas, De Feo’s work has also appeared in numerous galleries and museums around the world: The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Conn.; MASS MoCA, North Adams, Mass.; Museo de Arte, San Juan, Puerto Rico; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Colette, Paris; Stolen Space, London; The National Art Gallery, Bangladesh; and more. Notable exhibitions include Wooster on Spring at New York’s Candle Building, which Roberta Smith of The New York Times noted as one of 2006’s top 10 cultural events; 2005’s Two Atmospheres at The Aldrich Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn.; 2008’s Flowers at Manifesta 7 in Trento, Italy; 2010’s Mining for Splinters and Diamonds at No Borders Art in Hong Kong; 2013’s 10 Years of Woostercollective, at Jonathan Levine Gallery in New York and most recently The 80’s Past + Present at the Bleecker Street Arts Club in New York.
Michael’s work has appeared in countless media outlets, including three covers of New York Magazine’s “Reasons to Love New York” issues, The New York Times, The London Sunday Times and TIME Magazine. In addition, De Feo’s work has appeared in a variety of film documentaries including Alice Arnold’s To Be Seen (aired on PBS/WNET and screened at The Museum of Modern Art, 2006); and Banksy’s Exit Through The Gift Shop: A Banksy Film (Paranoid Pictures, 2010) which was an Academy Award best documentary nominee. De Feo’s work has appeared in nearly 40 books such as Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art by Carlo McCormick, Marc & Sara Schiller, and Ethel Sono (Tachen, 2010); Paris Graffiti by Fabienne Grevy (Edition de La Martiniere, 2008); and Home By Novogratz by Robert and Cortney Novogratz (Artisan, 2012).
De Feo’s award-winning children’s book, Alphabet City: Out on the Streets, employees New York City as his canvas – using his paintings glued on the streets of Manhattan to illustrate each letter of the alphabet. Currently in its fourth printing by Gingko Press, an initial review by Newsweek International said, “De Feo’s art evokes beauty and optimism with a childlike simplicity while paying homage to gritty Manhattan.”
Michael De Feo has been selected by The Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation (RPAF) as their featured artist of 2014. Along with working with urban youth on arts programming through Rush, Michael created and donated a series of three new flower prints and two paintings to benefit the Foundation.
Michael is available for comment and interview, please call the gallery or email info@rushphilanthropic.org
Explore De Feo’s work at his web site: www.mdefeo.com
