Michael De Feo
(a.k.a. The Flower Guy)
July 13 – August 12, 2016
Best known in the street art movement for his ubiquitous flower images, artist Michael De Feo has been creating artworks on the streets for nearly 25 years. Inhabiting a space between fine art and street art, De Feo’s iconic flower symbols have graced the covers of magazines and been exhibited in museums around the world.
Most recently, De Feo has begun to re-work fashion imagery - from magazine ads to bus shelter billboards - painting cascades of multicolored petals onto the existing printed image. A graphic intervention at once subversive and joyful, De Feo brings new life to his source material while at the same time remaining respectful to the source and the subject.
With the rise of social media, De Feo’s work has become widely known and as fashion brands embrace artists with large social media followings, De Feo has been asked to work for companies from Christian Louboutin to Neiman Marcus. As The New York Times headlined their recent profile of him - “Artist Defaces Fashion Ads, Fashion Embraces Him.”
For his first show at Danziger Gallery, De Feo has assembled 34 pieces ranging in size from small magazine pages to six foot tall bus shelter ads. At once charming and provocative, De Feo reinterprets and embellishes the existing imagery in a novel spin for the age of appropriation.
Concurrent with our show, a large scale site specific installation of Michael De Feo’s work is on view at The Rice University Art Gallery in Houston, Texas (from June 9 until August 28th).