Meet the NYC artist turning Manhattan’s streets into viral masterpieces: ‘A lot of people know me now’
NY Post
For this artist, New York City is the only canvas big enough.
When Benny Cruz picked up a paintbrush for the first time, he had no idea that his art would catapult him to the highest heights of social media.
“I always wanted to be a painter, until I reached a point where I wasn’t going anywhere with my art,” the Sweden-born artist, 49, told The Post.
“That was tough. Then and there, I started painting for myself.”
Cruz, also known as “Your Local Benny” on his social media, discovered only later in life that his work spoke to millions — many of them New Yorkers.
“I saw that a lot of people who followed me were from New York, and they started buying my art,” he said of his popular subway collection, pieces that sell for hundreds to thousands of dollars.
At 3 p.m. on a weekday inside Bushwick’s trendy Dayglow cafe, barista Joshua Thierry bends over a coupe glass on the bar like he’s defusing a bomb.
The last time Daniel Dana had to travel from New York to Miami, he opted to skip the usual time-sucking stress of the major airports and Uber-ed over to Teterboro instead — ambling into a dedicated terminal very shortly before his flight was scheduled to depart.
The shocking trend of suddenly curve-less celebrities flaunting their so-called “Ozempic bodies” is having a dangerous impact on women like Emily James.
“Ozempic body” is the new “heroin chic” in the world of celebrity — and the fact that it’s trickling down to the masses should concern everyone.
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Shop like your city depends on it.