stikman (stylized lowercase) is an pseudonymous American street artist best known for placing images of humanoid, robot-like stick figures on the sidewalks of cities across the United States.[1]
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Background
editHe is reported to be Philadelphia native.[2] He has been active in street art since the 1960s,[2] when he began his career at age 14 with anti-war graffiti.[3]
Street art
editHe has been creating the stikman figures that he is best known for since the 1990s.[2][4][5] These are usually made of yellow linoleum-like pavement marking tape that becomes embedded in the asphalt over time,[6][7] The artist places the figures, most frequently on crosswalks,[8] without any direct indication of authorship. This has led to articles in the media investigating the origin and authorship of the figures.[7][9] While they are frequently interpreted as robot figures, the artist has said that they are simply "little men made of sticks".[3]
A Washington Post article stated that the Washington, D.C. area had over 150 stikman images embedded in its sidewalks in 2008.[10] The figures have also been placed in New York City, Boston, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Wheeling, West Virginia, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Minneapolis, Minnesota, San Francisco,[11] and Chicago.[12]
stikman has also created the figures in other styles and media.[5][13]
Although known primarily for works placed on the street, the artist has also been featured in gallery exhibitions.[14][15] Works by stikman were selected for Amazon's first collection of limited-edition prints by seven international street artists.[16]
References
edit- ^ Lowman, Stephen (21 September 2008). "On the Trail of the Mysterious Stikman". washingtonpost.com.
- ^ a b c McDonald, Blair (6 April 2021). "Curious Nashville: How Stick Figures Spotted Downtown Fit Into A Global Street Art Project". WPLN News - Nashville Public Radio.
- ^ a b Cooley, Patrick (27 July 2017). "Guerilla artist Stikman leaves his mark on Cleveland". cleveland.
- ^ "Speaking with the Legendary stikman" Street Art NYC (November 28, 2012).
- ^ a b Armstrong, Phil "Cincinnati Crosswalks Are Being Invaded By Mysterious 'Stikmen'" Cincinnati Refined (September 29, 2017).
- ^ Kelly, John "If you've walked over an alien robot plastered to the street, you've met stikman" Washington Post (March 21, 2020).
- ^ a b Trigg, Lisa. "No one's quite sure where mysterious robot-like street markings come from". Terre Haute Tribune-Star.
- ^ Riggle, Nicholas Alden (Summer 2010). "Street Art: The Transfiguration of the Commonplaces". Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 68:3: 244.
- ^ "Secrets of the Square: Mr. Stikman, bring me a dream | Magazine | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com.
- ^ Wear, Ben. "Keep an eye out for Stikmen in the crosswalk". statesman.com.
- ^ HARRIS, BERNARD. "Has 'stikman' left his mark?". LancasterOnline.
- ^ "The hide-and-seek story behind the yellow stikman figures in Cleveland". www.cleveland19.com. 26 July 2017.
- ^ Dale, Eric "Philly Street Art Interviews: The Artist Behind stikman" StreetsDept.com (December 10, 2020).
- ^ "The Ever-Evolving stikman at Woodward Gallery on the Lower East Side" Street Art NYC (December 2, 2015).
- ^ Crimmins, Peter "Mysterious 'Stikman' artist's iconic street figures on display at Fishtown gallery" WHYY.org (March 24, 2015).
- ^ Middleton, Josh "Amazon’s First Series of Artist Prints" Philadelphia Magazine (November 23, 2015).