Featured in this March 2019 interview from Ratrock
And in this July 2016 article from The Edublogger
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Strolling in New York City is a world tour. The street fairs of Spanish Harlem mesh into college town Columbia. Columbia gives way to the shabby chic of Harlem. A few blocks farther and I am drowned by the tourists of Times Square. Further still and I reach the bustle of Wall Street brokers. I stroll and try to identify the passing languages. Spanish in the outer boroughs. Polish in Greenpoint. Russian in Brighton Beach. Cantonese in Chinatown. French and German shoppers in SoHo. There could be no more fitting a place for the United Nations.
Reading Here is New York by E.B. White, I realize some aspects of New York have changed little in the past seventy years. The streets, cars, and tenements are different, but the essential spirit of dynamic and diverse urbanism remains. Here is New York.
Learn more about my New York walks in this mini lecture. Or browse the collections below of photos and drawings. They are organized into ten urban walks, with each day in a different Manhattan neighborhood.
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Day One: Chinatown and Lower Manhattan
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City Hall Park and the Financial District
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The image above is one of a series of six, each measuring 26 by 40 inches. Each drawing is of a single neighborhood in New York City, based on Google Earth satellite imagery. The drawing took between 60 and 100 hours of work.
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This ink and watercolor drawing of NYC Chinatown expresses my lifelong connection with this neighborhood. The Chinese moved here by necessity in the nineteenth century and were condemned by poverty to these narrow alleys and cramped rooms. Over time, they made the space their own through interventions in the cityscape. The large corporate skyscrapers and government offices in the distance tower over the immigrant tenement blocks.
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Henry and Market Street

Overfilled trash can

Mulberry Street

Mulberry Street fortune teller (center)

Mosco Alley and Mulberry Street

Bayard and Mulberry Street grocery

Flâneur picks his teeth in window reflection

Forsyth and Delancey street grocery

Laundromat

Delancy Street tenements

Catcaller on Broome Street

Broome Street Buddhist temple

Doyers Street – Barbershop Row

Storefronts near Eldridge Street Synagogue

Eldridge Street Synagogue

View from Columbus Park

Edward Mooney House (top) and Church of the Transfiguration (bottom)

Bowery Savings Bank
View more of my artwork about Chinatown.
Or read this essay reflecting on the everyday lives and architectures of Chinatown residents.
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Day Two: SoHo
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Mercer Street in SoHo
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Water tower on Lafayette Street

Houston Street

Bodega ads on Houston Street

Water Tower

Canal Street back alley

Street performers

Cast iron building on Broadway

Broadway and Broome Streets

Rooftop garden view

Subway entrance

Prince and Mott Street

View up Lafayette Street

The Puck Building

Taxis on Houston Street

View towards Manhattan Bridge

Locked Alley

Man nnconsciously modeling

View toward Bowery Street

Glass sidewalk in SoHo

Broadway and Broome Street
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Myles working on a watercolor

Myles adding his signature

Finished watercolor of Broadway in SoHo
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Lower Broadway

Greene and Prince Street

Greene and Prince Street

Crosby and Broome Street

Mulberry and Jersey Street

Mulberry Street German School

Prince and Mulberry Street

Panorama of SoHo and Houston Street
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Day Three: The East and West Village
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By the Bowery

Fantasy parties sells erotic paraphernalia.

The Modern Family


Washington Square Park Arch

Justin the Statue says: “I get used to this. I do this to supplement my income for most of the year.”

Man watches people as the sun sets

New York’s first public library is in foreground.

Wise man

Jefferson Market

Wayne the Bird Dude says: “I’ve been spotting birds in this park for over twenty years. You should look my name up on Instagram.”

Colonnade Row on Lafayette Street

Love and luck

Street performer

Snoozing woman

First Avenue sunset

First Avenue streetscape
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Day Four: The High Line
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9th Avenue and West 14th Street

Washington and Little West 12th Street

9th Avenue and West 14th Street

High Line and Gansevoort Street

Latino family traverses West 14th Street.

High Line and 19th Street

Homeless man naps as tourists pass.

Performance “Art”

New and Old New York

High Line and 25th Street

Tagging?

High Line and 24th Street

Pedestrian passes gentrification in action.

High Line and 26th Street

Gentrification at West 28th Street

Rooftop grafitti

The High Line at 17th Street
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Day Five: Madison Square
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View toward Midtown from 23rd Stree

Grace Church steeple

23rd Street

Flatiron Building

23rd Street and 5th Avenue

Domino Sugar Factory (view from Williamsburg Bridge)
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Day Six: Midtown
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Preaching Armageddon in the capital of consumerism: Times Square

The Polish Embassy

Grand Central Terminal

Jihadist proclaims that: “America will soon be destroyed by fire!”

View of Empire State from Greeley Square

Chrysler Building

Queensboro Bridge

Chrysler Building
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Jurgen from Germany
A musician named Jurgen approaches and observes my painting of Grand Central Terminal.
Jurgen: You are an artist.
Me: No, that is a title I have yet to earn. Are you from Germany? You sound like the director Werner Herzog.
Jurgen: Herzog? Him? His films put me to sleep. [Jurgen shows me his noteboook.] If I lived in Nazi Germany, the Nazis would burn my work, maybe even me. My grandfather, he used to go to rallies to give the Nazi salute. I still don’t know why he did that. I don’t think he even knew.
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A Latin American man driving a pickup truck rolls down his window and asks:
Him: How far is the Statue of Liberty from here?
Me: Oh… About seven miles.
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Convert proclaims: “America will soon be destroyed by fire!”
Elderly African-American man approaches and extracts a crumpled and blurry image of a dollar sign from his bag.
Him: Hey, can you draw me some money bags.
Me: Sure.
Him: You know, it’s for my product. I’ll pay you well. What’s your name?
Me: Myles Zhang
Him: You Chinese? You parents from China?
Me: No, America.
Him: No, China…!
He walks off.
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Convert preaches the impending doom of America on Sixth Avenue and 34th Streets:
“The US government, they invented this virus that will kill off all the Black people.”
View more of my work about Grand Central Terminal.
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Day Seven: Central Park
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Bethesda Fountain

The Lake in Central Park

Lovers Lane

Two lovers. One rock.

The Lake in Central Park

Lovers Lane

Lovers Lane

Wollman Rink toward Midtown

Wollman Rink toward Midtown

Heckscher Playground toward 59th Street

The Ramble

Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Lake in Central Park
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Day Eight: Riverside Drive
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Riverside Church

Riverside Church

125th Street Viaduct

72nd Street Viaduct

Grant Memorial

George Washington Bridge from Riverside State Park

George Washington Bridge from Riverside State Park

69th Street Transfer Bridge
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Day Nine: Morningside Heights
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Apse of Saint John the Divine

Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University

Nave of Saint John the Divine

Ambulatory of the Nave

Choir of Saint John the Divine

Crossing of Saint John the Divine

Van Am Quad at Columbia University

Low Library at Columbia University

Low Library at Columbia University

Cathedral of Saint John the Divine

Saint Paul’s Church at Columbia University

Saint Paul’s Church at Columbia University

Philosophy Hall at Columbia University

Van Am Quad at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University

Fayerweather Hall (History Dep’t)

Cathedrals of Industry: Saint John the Divine and the 125th Street Viaduct
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View more of my artwork about Saint John the Divine.
View more of artwork about Columbia University’s campus.
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Day Ten: Harlem and Washington Heights
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125th Street Viaduct in Harlem
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This composition visualizes movement through circling spirals that align to the Golden Rectangle.
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Dyckman Street strip mall

Sherman Street apartments

Boudega sells ice cream, cigarettes, and chewing gum at 190th Street and Broadway.

Couple on 159th Street

Entrance to George Washington Bridge

Theater repurposed as United Palace Church at 175th Street

Aidan (left) plays with friends on 159th Street

Play Street at 159th Street

Townhomes on 159th Street

Squatter’s entrance to vacant brownstone at 159th Street

Jeo (in blue) plays checkers on a garbage can at 159th Street

Strip Mall at 192nd Street

Play Street at 159th Street

Aubudon Terrace at 156th Street

The pants in center are by Josefina and cost $198.

C-Town Grocery at150th Street

Sign reads: “Please put trash in can and do not leave out.”

125th Streeet subway viaduct

Newspaper clipping at lower right celebrates Obama’s inauguration

A curbside shrine to murder victims at 152nd Street and Broadway. A $2,000 reward is promised for tips leading to perpetrator’s arrest.

Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University

The Cloisters

The Cloisters
View more of my artwork about Harlem and the Bronx.
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“The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.”
– E.B. White, Here is New York
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