Invader’s Lower East Side Mosaics Revealed; Rumors of Arrest Last Week [PHOTOS]
This image has been archived or removed.
Invader installing tiles on Hotel Chantelle
Invader lived up to his name last week upon arrival on the shores of New York City. The French-based street artist, who specializes in 8-bit tile mosaics, has spent plenty of time embedding video-game-inspired artwork throughout the Five Boroughs. Unfortunately, Invader reserved the biggest mosaics for points outside the city. Like the Joey Ramone in Brooklyn, which deserves to sit near his former stomping grounds on the Bowery (i.e. CBGB).
But what about the Lower East Side? Challenge accepted. Here are some of the Invader pieces that we found:
This image has been archived or removed.
Invader’s Ninja Turtle
Broome Street, Williamsburg Pizza
Seems fitting that there would be a Ninja Turtle sitting outside the Williamsburg Pizza outpost at Broome and Allen Streets. Definitely some synergy there, but shouldn’t it really be Michaelangelo (“he’s the party dude”) and not Leonardo?
This image has been archived or removed.
Ludlow Street, Hotel Chantelle
Invader embedded the tiling in the wee hours of Friday morning. The piece was not commissioned by the bar, as previously reported.
This image has been archived or removed.
Bowery/East Houston
Located above and beside the Paulaner Brauhaus at 265-267 Bowery. The piece is a nod to the beer-soaked history here, both with the current brewery tenant and its decades-old ancestor, Sammy’s Bowery Follies.
This image has been archived or removed.
Bowery/Hester
Series of space invader video game characters embedded in the tenement lintels.
This image has been archived or removed.
Photo: Jackie M. Jensen
Lafayette Street, Sant Ambroeus
Okay, this admittedly isn’t on the Lower East Side. Located above the Sant Ambroeus restaurant.
Attempts at removing the art for personal gain might prove futile. Indeed, the New York Times first reported that these mosaics will be harder for collectors to steal.
To thwart those who might take down his work for their own profit, he said, he has sought out sites with natural architectural recesses or filled-in windows. By installing a piece in the exact size and shape of these nooks, he leaves little wiggle room for anyone who might try to pry them out.
In recent years, he has also used larger, thinner tiles: Try to jimmy them off, and they’ll chip apart rather than popping off intact.
Also of note is the fact that the 7th Precinct didn’t seem to mind Invader installing these pieces. An insider notes that the street artist isn’t really “on their radar.” That it’s already understood he’s received permissions from building owners before going into the field.
But we did hear of an arrest made outside the 7th Precinct, despite working on a “permission piece.” Firm details on the collar are scant, though.
Recent Stories
Eighteen-Story ‘Moxy’ Hotel Woos its Bowery Neighbors
Moxy is meeting the neighbors, currently amidst the requisite charm offensive ahead of its new hotel debut on the Bowery. The superstructure at 151 Bowery – construction of which had been on pause during the initial phase of the pandemic – topped out last October and now sits at eighteen stories. Joining the sky-high company […]
Another Lower East Side Crab Shack Shutters
It’s a crisis of crab cakes on the Lower East Side. In an apparent coincidence, two dedicated crab shacks – both located within a few blocks of one another – closed just days apart this month. As previously reported, Crab Du Jour closed down its franchise at Grand and Suffolk Streets within the last couple […]
A Show of Strength and Mourning As NYPD Responds to Domestic Dispute Call on Elizabeth Street in Little Italy
A man armed with a knife threatened his family in an Elizabeth Street apartment, then barricaded himself, cops said. At approximately 12:30pm on Monday, sources said the assailant menaced his family inside 239 Elizabeth – allegedly with a knife – then barricaded inside another room. Officers from the 5th Precinct arrived in good time, and entered the […]
Sheldon Silver, Disgraced Assembly Speaker from LES, Dies at 77
Sheldon Silver, the disgraced powerhouse of the New York State Assembly, and native Lower East Sider, whose career was toppled by a 2015 corruption conviction, died yesterday. He was 77. According to the New York Times, Silver, who maintained a residence at Hillman Houses, had been imprisoned at Devens Federal Medical Center in Ayer, Massachusetts. […]
Cops: Robbers Entered Juice Press through Rivington Hotel Basement
Brazen robbers used the basement of the Hotel on Rivington to hit the Juice Press location next door, cops said. Police sources say that bandits entered the Hotel on Rivington shortly before 6:00am the morning of January 19. Gaining access to the basement, the perps then used the passageway to sneak into the adjacent Juice […]
