Untitled (Grace Hartzel by Willy Vanderperre for Vogue, March 2016), acrylic on magazine page, 11 x 8 inches, 2016

Michael De Feo has elevated fashion ads to a new realm of fine art with his signature floral graffiti he applies to commercial glossy corporate ad campaigns of mainstream media.

Michael De Feo, who was profiled this spring in The New York Times, is a painter with a penchant for street art, gaining inter- national recognition for painting over outdoor fashion ads with buoy- ant floral patterns. In Crosstown Traffic, De Feo treats Rice Gallery’s front glass wall like a supersized commercial display kiosk, enlarging a selection of fashion ads from magazines, printing them at nearly billboard size, and hand painting over them.

Michael De Feo, Crosstown Traffic, 2016 Commission, Rice University Art Gallery, Houston, Texas Photo: Nash Baker © nashbaker.com

De Feo plunges inside the seductive, fantasy world of high- end advertising, normally kept at a distance behind glass or beneath the sheen of a glossy magazine page, and adds a human touch. Says De Feo, “One of the compelling aspects of working on fashion advertisements is that although I’m subverting the ads, they frequently end up reading like they were designed that way.”

Known as “The Flower Guy,” De Feo has painted flowers on the streets of New York and in over 60 cities internationally. His iconic line drawing of a curving stem topped with daisy petals can be seen sprouting from the bases of telephone poles, tucked in between signs, and embellishing a myriad of surfaces. A project that started nearly 25 years ago and continues today began with a simple aim, says De Feo, “to spread some cheer and smiles in a city full of concrete, steel, and glass.”

Untitled (Kiera Knightly by Mario Testino for Chanel), acrylic on bus-stop shelter advertisement, 68.5 x 47.5 inches, 2016
Untitled (Gisele Bundchen by Patrick Demarchelier for Chanel), acrylic on bus-stop shelter advertisement, 68.5 x 47.5 inches, 2015