Many people may not realize it, but Stikman has been putting up his street art for nearly 20 years. He started out in the NYC’s East Village during the summer of 1992. In celebration of this major milestone, Pandemic Gallery will be hosting a Stikman solo show called 20. The show opens on March 16th and runs through April 6th.
Besides his general coolness, I do have one story to tell about Stikman: Last year I hosted some people at Haverford College to talk about street art. It was a fun event. The immediate and obvious physical results of this event were Jordan Seiler work with Haverford students and Gaia’s mural. A day or two later, I noticed stickers by some Philly sticker artists, but that was somewhat expected. I had seen those guys in the audience at the discussion. The real surprise came much later, when I discovered that Stikman had put up at least two pieces at Haverford. Both artworks are still there to this day, almost a year later. Since I didn’t spot either piece until after the talk, my guess is that Stikman’s contributions to the Haverford campus arrived when he visited for that discussion, but I can’t be sure. However they arrived, Stikman’s pieces are always a bright spot on my day, whether I’m headed to another lunch at the cafeteria or off to work.
PS, if anyone from Haverford College’s communications department is reading this because it has come up on your Google Alerts: That story was a fiction and the above photo is a faked. You will not find a blue Stikman sculpture outside of the Dining Center. Even if it is there, it must have been there for many years and has nothing to do with any event on campus that I had anything to do with. Sorry for confusing you.
PS, if you do not work at Haverford College, please disregard the above paragraph.
Photos by Laura Padgett and RJ Rushmore