In the City

For the follow-up to In the Wilds, his much-loved illustrated ode to rural life, Nigel Peake swaps the bucolic Irish countryside, where he grew up, for the bustling sidewalks of the city. Peake's companion volume, In the City, explores the visual details of a variety of urban metropolises, including Shanghai, New York, Antwerp, London, Paris, Oslo, Lausanne, Budapest, Istanbul, and San Francisco. These new drawings and paintings document the sights, sounds, shapes, and textures he absorbs as he wanders the streets without a map or sits in a café while waiting for a train. Peake's hand-drawn observations capture the colors, grids, surfaces, paths, reflections, rooftops, and other details—from reflections on windows and cracks in the pavement to the frayed posters on building walls. What emerges is a personal and universal portrait of a city in all its beautiful and intricate forms, structures, and patterns.