My Dog Sighs Returns to New York with Three Murals Rooted in the City’s Communities
Returning to New York for three murals in three days, British street artist My Dog Sighs turns his monumental eyes towards the vendors, tenants and community figures whose everyday presence gives the city its character.
British street artist My Dog Sighs has returned to New York City to create three murals across Manhattan and Brooklyn. His first Manhattan wall in ten years appeared above the entrance to the Second Avenue subway, followed by a second work in Chinatown and a final mural across the East River in Brooklyn.
Created during a visit during the Affordable Art Fair New York, the series draws its meaning from the streets beyond the fair. Each eye responds to a particular wall, neighbourhood and encounter, building a portrait of New York through people whose contribution to the city is felt locally rather than publicly celebrated.
My Dog Sighs painting the turquoise iris of his Chinatown mural in New York. Image Copyright Just A Spectator.
Returning to the Streets of Manhattan
My Dog Sighs reflected on the cultural histories associated with New York: the emergence of modern graffiti, the downtown art world of Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, Andy Warhol’s Factory, CBGB and the birth of American punk, alongside the countless films and television programmes through which the city has been repeatedly imagined.
His first wall occupies a part of Manhattan where many of those histories overlap. Positioned above the Second Avenue subway entrance, the mural sits close to the former site of CBGB, Katz’s Delicatessen, Basquiat’s Great Jones Street home and Beastie Boys Square.
Yet the work’s emotional centre emerged from the people living and working beside the wall.
My Dog Sighs painting the turquoise iris of his Chinatown mural in New York. Image Copyright Just A Spectator.
Iman and the People Who Hold a City Together
My Dog Sighs does not usually determine the reflection within one of his eye murals before arriving at a location. The image develops through the painting process, allowing the surroundings and the people he meets to influence what eventually appears within the iris.
During his first day in Manhattan, one possible subject was Eric B, a local character who lives on a bench in the central reservation opposite the wall. Eric describes himself as the street’s traffic conductor and spent time with the artist as he painted, sharing stories, offering suggestions and occasionally directing proceedings from across the road.
Although Eric did not become the central figure within the finished work, one of his ideas remained. He suggested that the artist add birds, and My Dog Sighs incorporated them into the mural.
The defining encounter was with Iman, who runs the hotdog stand beside the subway entrance. She welcomed the artist and his team with warmth, shared food with a local man known as Dollar Man and offered shelter to the artist’s wife when an uncomfortable street interaction developed nearby.
As the mural progressed, Iman spoke about operating the stand, her family in Egypt and her voluntary work within the community. Her generosity was expressed through a series of quiet, instinctive gestures that revealed how deeply she belongs to this particular corner of the city.
My Dog Sighs chose Iman as a way of acknowledging what he described as “all the invisible people of a city,” those whose labour, care and familiarity keep a neighbourhood functioning without recognition or fanfare.
Iman, whose generosity and community spirit inspired My Dog Sighs’ first New York mural. Image Copyright MDS.
New York Reflected in a Single Eye
The completed mural presents one of My Dog Sighs’ monumental eyes painted across the illusion of a torn sheet of cardboard, apparently secured to the building with strips of black tape. The familiar material gives the work a sense of vulnerability, as though this immense and meticulously rendered image remains provisional enough to be removed or lost.
Within the vivid pink iris, the city contracts into a curved reflection. Blue sky, trees, architecture and the distinctive green globe of the subway entrance are held within the surface of the eye, while tears gather delicately along its outer edge.
The position above the station is integral to the work. Pedestrians descend beneath it, cars pass through the intersection and the green subway railings extend into its physical frame. Rather than separating the mural from its surroundings, My Dog Sighs allows the architecture and movement of the street to complete the composition.
The eye appears to observe the city while simultaneously holding part of that city within itself. Its scale commands attention, but the story behind it draws the viewer towards a person who might otherwise remain unseen among the relentless movement of Manhattan.
My Dog Sighs’ completed eye mural overlooking the Second Avenue subway entrance in Manhattan. Image Copyright Just A Spectator.
Chinatown and Its Unofficial Mayor
For the second mural, My Dog Sighs moved into Chinatown, where he painted another eye against the vivid red exterior of a neighbourhood storefront. The surrounding security gates, multilingual signage, street furniture and neighbouring artwork remain visible, embedding the piece within the accumulated visual character of the area.
This time, the work connects to a tenant from the building who has become an important figure within the surrounding community. Known for their longstanding presence and local leadership, the tenant is affectionately regarded as the unofficial mayor of the neighbourhood.
The turquoise iris introduces a cooler, more electric register than the pink of the Second Avenue mural. Painted across another piece of apparently torn and taped cardboard, the eye contains a reflection of the street while remaining firmly attached to its architecture. The uneven brickwork, commercial signage and intense red wall prevent the image from becoming isolated from the life around it.
As with the portrait of Iman, the Chinatown mural recognises a form of influence built through presence, familiarity and trust. These are figures whose importance cannot be measured through official titles, yet whose relationships help give a neighbourhood its sense of continuity.
My Dog Sighs turquoise iris of his Chinatown mural in New York. Image Copyright Just A Spectator.
From Manhattan to Brooklyn
The third and final wall takes the project across the East River into Brooklyn, extending the three-day sequence beyond Manhattan and into another distinct part of New York’s urban landscape. My Dog Sighs crossed into Brooklyn to honour ByteGirl, a photographer and guide who has spent years documenting and supporting the US street-art scene.
The artist first met her in Miami and praised her unmatched energy and dedication, recalling the late-night painting missions she has accompanied and recorded. By placing ByteGirl within the reflection, My Dog Sighs turns the lens towards someone usually working behind it.
Together, the murals create a journey through the city that is geographical, visual and human. Their shared language connects them, while each location introduces its own architecture, colour, street activity and social history.
Photographer Kimberly Kev documented the completed mural by My Dog Sighs in Brooklyn.
The recurring eye becomes a means of recording these differences. Each mural gathers its surroundings into the iris while directing attention back towards the people who inhabit the streets beyond its painted surface.
My Dog Sighs’ visit coincided with his presentation at Affordable Art Fair New York, following an invitation from EDiT. to exhibit his work and paint in the city. That context brought him to New York, but the murals found their substance through the unscripted encounters that occurred outside the fair.
After ten years away from Manhattan’s walls, the artist’s return has become a study of visibility and belonging. New York’s celebrated cultural history remains present in the background, but these murals focus on the people creating its living history each day.
Explore My Dog Sighs
Discover more about My Dog Sighs’ murals, expressive eyes and found-object practice in our complete artist guide, and explore available works and contact GraffitiStreet for acquisitions, sourcing and private viewings at our Chichester gallery.
My Dog Sighs – Concrete Vision (2025). Available via GraffitiStreet
Discover more about My Dog Sighs’ distinctive practice and explore his available artworks at GraffitiStreet, or contact GraffitiStreet to discuss a bespoke artwork or mural commission.