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FRANK APE

ABOUT THE ARTIST

In New York City it seems like everyone knows Frank Ape, the sweet and smiley creature created by artist Brandon Sines. “I was looking for someone who wasn’t quite a person and wasn’t quite an animal, but who had emotions… who was wise, and felt things deeply,” Sines says of conceiving the lovable character, who he dreamed up while living in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn. “That’s how Frank was born.”


For his 4 WTC installation, Sines painted Frank on the south side window riding a unicycle across the Verrazano Bridge.

“Frank is really all about being positive and pop culture references here and there, so this covers both grounds,” Sines explained while creating the painting, which he calls an homage to Philippe Petit (the French tightrope walker who so memorably performed his breathtaking high-wire act between the original World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in 1974). “Hopefully when someone looks at it they get the reference, they understand that it's a playful thing, and it just makes them smile, you know?”


Two years later, Frank made a huge public splash in Sines’ gigantic printed mural at the site of the future 2 World Trade Center, where the creature, in various colors and sizes, walks, dances, and leaps beneath the inclusive message EVERYONE’S DIFFERENT AND EVERYONE’S THE SAME.


Sines was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Toronto, Canada, but now lives and works in New York City. “New York is such an inspiring place and there’s a heartbeat and energy here that I really dig,” he says. With Frank Ape appearing on walls all over the city, Sines’ creation is now part of that vibrant, positive energy - and Sines says there’s more to come: “It’s important for me to know that I made people feel good.”

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