Space Invader street artist lands in NYC

French urban artist Invader was in New York City this past week premiering his short film "Art4Space" at Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Photographer Luna Park snapped photos of pieces Invader put up while in town. Invader creates small, colored-tile mosaics of early 1980's video game characters (as well as other icons like Snow White and R2D2). In this set, he even pays homage to NYC with his take on the classic I Heart NY/The Big Apple imagery. I've loved this guy's work for awhile, but today I learned he's been in operation for 15 years, and conducted his first "invasion" of Paris, France, in 1998.

Sorry for the lo-res pics. Professional photographers are often (understandably) protective of their original full-resolution photos.

And take note of the art's placement and what it correlates to in either its immediate environment or to what's in the backdrop. Sometimes it's a woman placed over a restaurant that had to cook enough meals to feed seven little people. Or it's a dome-headed droid in the foreground of a dome-headed building. Or a Mario Bros. fire flower by a sign advertising waterproofing services.