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Aakash Nihalani  New York, NY


* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.


About Aakash


My street work consists mostly of isometric rectangles and squares. I selectively place these graphics around New York to highlight the unexpected contours and elegant geometry of the city itself. All execution of a piece is done on site with little to no planning.

For however briefly, I am trying to offer people a chance to step into a different New York than they are used to seeing, and in turn, momentarily escape from routine schedules and lives. We all need the opportunity to see the city more playfully, as a world dominated by the interplay of very basic color and shape. I try to create a new space within the existing space of our everyday world for people to enter freely, and unexpectedly ‘disconnect’ from their reality.


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Recommended by our guest curators


Elisa Carmichael

Editor, tasj magazine

"I know just about every piece Aakash has made, both on the street and in his studio, since 2008, and I love them all. I am very grateful for all the opportunities I have had to work with him to date, because I truly believe he is one of the most talented and creative young artists working in New York today. Look out for big things from him in the future!"

Mary Iverson

Seattle, WA artist

"I really love the way Aakash’s work uses the site as a background, letting the characteristics of the street be a part of the work. I am inspired by the work’s simplicity and the questions it raises about materials and background vs. painted surface."


Aakash appears in the following Top 10 lists


'New York'

'Temporary'

'2008'


10 of 12 reactions displayed


"try the interactive art on his website"

"Your art is very different wich adds something more to the meaning of art.It's so simple,it's complex. If a person passing by took the time to think about your work, i think they would find themselves intrigued in their own thoughts about what your simple artwork holds in it's own self. I hope to see your beautiful artwork myself in the big city of new york one day."

"I live in New York City, this doesn't offer me any other way of looking at the city... it's nothing great."

"To the person who said "expand, grow, do more", what if someone had told Kandinsky to stop painting shapes. or they told Mondrian to grow beyond lines and color blocks.We wouldn't have the famous pieces that many artists draw inspiration from.These shapes speak to a very basal feeling of form.I bet if someone had painted a nice beautiful mural up on the walls, people would just pass it by. There is something about being so basic in design that catches peoples jaded attention. Less can be more."

"Intrigued, so I checked out the artists website. I, too, like the sense of volume and space implied by the forms, but I think it is more than just about geometry - it is about the interaction of people with the work, and the interaction of the work with the surroundings (architecture, existing street art, bikes, traffic) that makes the work intriguing. Because of this context and interaction, it is much more than simple geometric forms. I think these are very successul at creating new spaces from what is already there - you get a better sense of this from the photos on the website."

"thats a cool sidewalk artwork.."

"Good job"

"I like the way my mind feels its way around your shapes. It processes in ways that are distinct from my everyday experiences, and gets things moving up there! Keep expanding on your methods & I'll keep encouraging you! Thanks."

"You have done very successful street art, Aakash Nihalan, for the greatest audience in the world, pedestrians in NYC. The parallelograms and other open geometric shapes are a top-notch solution. The open structure allows the back ground to come into and through the work which looks more like sculpture than painting. I don't like single bricks cause they just seem like tags. But oh, the bigger pieces and how they interact with people. The meter maid photographed in the middle of one. I take as a working thesis that one of the functions of sculpture is to create a sense of place, that one exists somewhere that an undefined universe. A dot of an undefined map. Look at the fountains of Tivoli. You know you are somewhere special when you are at that place. In a lesser degree, as guerrilla art Aakash Nihalan does the same. I say <5 in the values of street art. It does resist commodification, but a number of street artist in NY, had gallery success later, Basquiat and Haring."

"I love the way how you show geometry in New York.It's quite simple and enthusiatic."


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