When New York was in its first lockdown, in April 2020, artist Sho Shibuya found himself isolated in a studio flat in Brooklyn. “I realised that the noise of honking cars and shouting had been replaced by the sound of birds and wind in the trees. I saw the sky, as beautiful as ever despite the chaos.”
He began to paint the sunrise on to the front page of the New York Times each day, contrasting “the anxiety of the news with the serenity of the sky”. As 2020 progressed, he expanded to include the US vote, Black Lives Matter and other news. Has the project been therapeutic ? “It’s like a calm breeze for my brain. It does not matter what in the world is going on. The sky is always beautiful.”
