Reading the Streets: Nick Walker’s ‘Vandal’ in Williamsburg

I walked a little off my usual route in Williamsburg the other day and made a happy discovery—one of Nick Walker’s Vandal characters hanging out on a wall. One of the best-known graffiti artists creating work today, Nick Walker has been using his alter ego character, the Vandal, to enhance street space across the world. The Vandal disguises himself as a true English gentleman with a bowler and suit to break artistic boundaries. He even appeared in the background of the Black Eyed Peas’ video for I Gotta Feeling. This Williamsburg Vandal demonstrates a more cautious attitude than other renditions, peering out from behind his fingers.

Nick Walker emerged from the Bristol graffiti scene in the early ’80s, and began combining stencils with freehand work in the early ’90s. The stencil allowed him a level of control that spray-painting didn’t and it enabled him to take any image and recreate it on all types of surfaces. Alongside Inkie and Banksy, two other artists to come out of Bristol, he contributed to the 1998 Walls on Fire graffiti jam, which involved painting a 1.4-kilometer space around Bristol’s historic docks. In 2008, Walker’s Moona Lisa sold for 54,000 pounds ($83,290) at Bonhams Urban Auction, more than 10 times the estimated worth. But despite his success, Walker continues to practice his roots—as the Williamsburg Vandal pieces prove.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE

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