T: The New York Times Style Magazine commissions Ilya Milstein to draw a fantasy of 80s New York

Illustrator Ilya Milstein has been commissioned by lifestyle print publication T: The New York Times Style Magazine to create a set of four drawings which come together to build a fantasised landscape of 1980’s New York.

The Milan-born illustrator, who grew up in Melbourne, now resides and works in New York City. Ilya tells us that his drawings, which were art directed by Daniel Wagner, accompany an article of first-hand accounts by well known characters including Martha Rosler, Dapper Dan and John Giorno.

New Yorkers and Their ’80s Routines — Block by Block is just that: collective narratives of a place pieced together through memories. “These detailed streetscapes follow a character as she navigates the bustling and gritty New York of the era, crossing paths along the way with figures like David Wojnarowicz, Sylvia Woods and Andy Warhol,” Ilya explains.

The areas of SoHo/TriBeCa, East Village, Harlem and Upper East Side are depicted bustling with life: in Harlem, breakdancers gather outside Dapper Dan’s Boutique. In East Village, Keith Haring paints a dancing character directly onto a wall. Affluent characters gather outside Upper East side establishment Elaine’s, and in a SoHo/TriBeCa nightscape, figures stroll in an out of Paradise Garage.