NEW YORK – Whether carrying a jaunty umbrella on the side of Bleecker Street bar Thunder Jacksons, professing his love for New York on Ludlow just below Delancey, or calmly reading a newspaper amid the delicious dumpling shops of Eldridge Street, Nick Walker’s dapper Vandal brings a touch of class wherever he goes.

On Eldridge Street, in his classic pinstripe suit, the Vandal sits on top of multicolored bubble letters that spell out vandal. You can’t see his face, just hint of a fedora, behind the New York Times, but I have a feeling he’s smirking. I love the way this piece combines graffiti lettering with a stenciled figure.

On Ludlow, the Vandal is captured in the midst of drawing a heart to illustrate his statement of love for New York City. It’s almost balletic the way he’s moving as he draws.

During the height of Banksy’s New York residency in 2013, Walker’s vandal on Bleecker was mislabeled as the work of everyone’s favorite stenciling superstar. A one anonymous observer even told the website Gothamist that they had observed Banksy drinking a beer at the bar after completing the mural.

There are a couple of parallels. Both came up in the Bristol, England graffiti scene and their work regularly commands high prices; most recently Walker’s first solo show sold $1.5 million worth of art in just a few days, which, while not quite reaching Banksy’s high of $1.9 million for a single painting, is still impressive.

Walker told Bloomberg News in 2014 that while he met Banksy in the late 1990s, “they don’t talk much these days.”

By ILANA NOVICK