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I wondered what to do, I thought surely he needed the money that I had offered him for the piece. I went into the trendy Mercer Hotel to get warm and wondered whether to wait for a few hours in the lobby to see whether the artist would appear. As it would be dark by 5pm. I didn’t want to go back to my Hotel area too late so I decided to go back to the Upper East Side. How strange I thought a struggling artist would normally be eager to sell his art, especially when one is in need of cash. Monday was my last day in the big apple I had several errands to run and last minute shopping to do, as I had a meeting at the Soho House near Chelsea Market and I wanted to go by China Town as I had not been in years I thought I would walk from China Town to the Chelsea area and cross Mercer street again just to see if Yuni would by chance be at the meeting point. After walking 23km from Central Park down to Chinatown and then back up Broadway I was exhausted to say the least and running late to my meeting at Chelsea. I was two streets from Mercer and thought it is worth it just to go by and see if by chance the artist would be there, then I would pop in a taxi and make it to my meeting all within 15 minutes. As I approached Mercer Street and came up to the scaffolding spot, to my surprise Yuni was there! His street side studio
was all set up with his brushes and poster roll ups he was working on another colorful piece. I approached him, he was pleased to see me and I told him I had missed him yesterday. He explained that due to the cold weather and rain he could not cope to be on the street that is why he didn’t make it, but thankfully we managed to catch each other today my last day. He said he had a feeling I would come again, I asked to see the Frida piece. It was completed full of bright colors with the metro map background the piece was full of Life! I paid him and urged him to continue working as he had a great talent! I asked for his contact details to follow his progress and perhaps organize an exhibition for him in Europe! New York City is a treasure trove of street art. From professionally painted murals to gritty graffiti, this artistic form of self-expression initially gained prominence in the early 1980s and since then, visual artists from all across the globe have flocked to the concrete jungle to create urban masterpieces. Neon Colored posters, pop art, street installations, sculptures and massive wall murals can be observed from all angles of the Big Apple! While it is common in the contemporary art scene for street artists to successfully combine street art and studio based work, Jean-Michel Basquiat whose powerful 1982 painting of a skull brought $110.5 million at Sotheby’s, to become the sixth most expensive work ever sold at auction. Only 10 other works have broken the $100 million mark. (The bidder was the Japanese collector Yusaku Maezawa ) Basquiat is one of the most spectacular examples of the crossover from street art into the world of find art. One of my favourite Galleries in Soho is the DTR modern Gallery on West Broadway with several pieces by Mr. Brainwash, Banksy, Keith Hering, George Kondo, Damian Hirst etc.. I follow Mr. Brainwash since several years ago, I began working for the Parisian Street Art Gallery Moretti Moretti and had several pieces by both Mr. Brainwash and his son the artist Hijack. ¨Life is Beautiful¨ is his the artists company name with which he signs all his pieces. Impressive Murals can be seen around Chelsea Market and in the Meat Packing District and all around Noho. Detour Gallery in New Jersey includes works by my recent discovery Yuni Felix and several up and coming street artists.
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