Michael De Feo (BFA 1995 Graphic Design) first made his mark on SVA over twenty years ago, painting his now-famous giant flower seven stories above the entrance to the College's 209 East 23^rd Street building. A black-and-white photograph of undergraduate De Feo in action that day graces the catalogue cover for the alumni exhibition "Street Smart: The Intersection of Art and Design in the City," which celebrates artists' relationship to the urban environment and is currently being held at the SVA Chelsea Gallery. De Feo's work, along with that of 18 fellow alumni, will be on view through Wednesday, December 20.

Besides his single-stemmed street art pieces, now found all over the world, De Feo is also known for another, decidedly urban art installation: using the advertising space and attendant images hung in bus-stop shelters around New York City. With a key bestowed upon him by a friend, De Feo began sneaking fashion ads out of their glass enclosures, covering them with paint daubs and floral motifs, and then putting them back up. Those renegade interventions led to successful, sanctioned collaborations with J. Crew and Neiman Marcus and attention from brands like Christian Louboutin. De Feo's work in "Street Smart" includes a larger-scale image of this sort, as well as three smaller magazine covers, the original photographs' faces nearly obscured by his dense patterning. Pieces like this make up De Feo's current studio practice.

On Wednesday, December 13, De Feo takes part in an artists' panel that will discuss participants' lives and careers as artists in New York City, and the role SVA played a role in getting them there. We spoke with him in advance of the event to get a better sense of his own take on city life as an artist and what to expect at the discussion.

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