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As an art student in 1993, Michael De Feo drew a simple bloom that became a familiar and welcome presence in New York after he spent countless nights pasting hundreds of versions of it all over the city's building walls. Michael continued the project woldwide and these flowers have been sighted in more than 60 international cities. His street works took a new direction in 2015 when a guerrilla art collective provided him access to the cases that protect bus-shelter ads, enabling him to launch a beautiful campaign of his blossoms on top of fashion ads.
His art has taken many forms, including a substantial body of studio work inspired by Dutch 17th-century paintings and another series which married floral themes with Pre-Raphaelite and Victorian portraiture. De Feo's colorful and lively book reproduces more than 200 of his flower-inspired images and features commentary from a diverse group of people who have supported his often-clandestine work. Includes a written history of the genesis of the flower project by De Feo, a preface by artist duo FAILE, and essays by Eric Sutphin, James Danziger and Anya Firestone.
Michael's flower project celebrated its 30th anniversary in September, 2023.
Flowers
Published by Abrams Books, 2019
$35.00, Harcover, 11 x 9 inches, 192 pages, 200 color images, Printed in Germany.
SOLD OUT / OUT OF PRINT
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2019 Flowers Book Tour - America
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April 11, 2019 - Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY - book signing
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April 14, 2019 - The Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX - book signing + exclusive products
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April 18, 2019 - MIT The List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA - lecture and book signing
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April 25, 2019 - POP UP, 198 Allen Street, New York City - exhibition, book signing + print release
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April 26, 2019 - POP UP, 198 Allen Street, New York City - exhibition
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May 2, 2019 - The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, CT, lecture + book signing,
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May 4, 2019 - Hennessey + Ingalls Bookstore, Los Angeles, CA, reading + book signing
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May 7, 2019 - The Booksmith, San Francisco, CA, book signing
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May 9, 2019 - Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH - lecture + book signing
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2019 Flowers Book Tour - Europe
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May 28, 2019 - Design Museum, Kensington, London, UK - reading + book signing
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May 29, 2019 - doyoureadme?!, Berlin, Germany - reading + book signing
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June 5, 2019 - Festival a-part, Saint-Étienne-du-Grès, France - mural + book signing
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June 6, 2019 - Le Grand Jeu on Fluctuart Boat, Paris, France - book signing
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June 8, 2019 - The Garage, Amsterdam, the Netherlands - book signing
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"I've admired Michael De Feo's flowers on the street for years. It's not easy to simplify an image and decide what is the absolute character of it that you would like to retain and Michael has succeeded in doing this brilliantly. His colorful, bold and instantly recognizable flower icon has proven its lasting value on the walls of cities everywhere. In the competitive world of street art with less can be more."
- Martha Cooper, Photographer and Co-Author of Subway Art
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"The thing I like most about Michaels work is that there is a wondrous sense of play. These flowers are urbanized but have connotations of a different world before them. A hieroglyphic of something calmer from before all the towers, noise and traffic. They are incredibly disarming and happy just to please."
- Antony Micallef, Artist
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"With paint, paper, and paste, Michael De Feo has worked tirelessly to keep our cities blooming. Marked in decades, his work has raised the possibility that our impulse to mark the city isn't a selfish act of outsider defiance, but rather the creative affirmation of our shared cohabitation."
- Jordan Seiler, Artist & Founder of Public Ad Campaign
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"Throughout his entire career of creative and sensitive urban expression, Michael has provided the dots, for everyone in need of connecting both art and love, with a sharing of inner deep feelings, within the outdoor environment."
- John Fekner & Don Leicht, Artists
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"Every now and again, an artist comes along whose brilliant insight enables them to put their finger on the pulse of a generation. Michael De Feo is such an innovator, whose imagery penetrates the collective unconscious in its utter simplicity. How extraordinary."
- Richard Wilde, Founding Chair of the Advertising and Design Department at School of Visual Arts
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"Michael De Feo's dedication and singularity in the use of his iconic flower image has taken him on a creative adventure of self-discovery in a very public arena. From my perspective, Michael has created a new meaning to the phrase "flower power."
- Joey Skaggs, Artist & Media Prankster
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"We first discovered Michael DeFeo's flower pieces while walking our dog around Soho in 2001. It was one of the first pieces of street art that we ever discovered and Michael was the first street artist we met as we ventured into creating Wooster Collective. Michael's intelligence, kindness and thoughtfulness was probably what compelled us to continue meeting street artists. It was amazing to learn that these were not just adornments, but were pieces to activate dormant spaces and to lay claim to a city layered with corporate advertising."
- Marc & Sara Schiller, Founders of Wooster Collective
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"Michael's flowers are vibrant. They echo the personality, the thoughtful consciousness of their creator."
- Gary Lichtenstein, Master Printmaker
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"Michael's work is bold, engaging and quite simply, makes one smile. From his original flowers that appeared randomly throughout the city, to his layered and more complex paintings, he pushes the boundaries and is delightfully invasive. Michael's work has the "stop you in your track" quality."
- Georgia Christensen, Former Creative Director of Neiman Marcus
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