NYC body artist Andy Golub hits Union Square to paint the naked

Publish date: 2024-05-09

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They wore nothing but a smile.

Artist Andy Golub returned to his years-long passion of publicly painting naked New Yorkers, slathering paint on a pair of models in front of dozens of gawkers in Union Square Park Friday.

It was a nude prelude to a larger buff body painting bonanza scheduled for July 24 in the same park involving 30 artists and 50 models. The event is being staged by Golub’s nonprofit Human Connection Arts.

The 55-year-old dad from Nyack has been using naked men and women as his canvas since 2008. He doesn’t use traditional paint (for safety reasons) but rather liquified theatrical makeup.

“Art is a great way to bring people together and show how we are much more similar than different and the human body is the greatest example of how we are really all the same,” Golub told The Post. “There’s something really extremely human about painting naked people in public. It sounds like something that is pretty silly, but I would bet this is the type of thing that has been going on for many, many thousands of years.”

After the four-hour paint-fest on July 24, artists, models and interested members of the viewing public will come together to form a human circle at the park’s north end. Inside the circle the public will be treated to an HCA dance show titled “Naked Theater.”

Niki Davis Fainbloom, a sex educator, has been body painted by artist Andy Golub ten times. J.C. Rice

After the event, models and artists will parade their flesh canvases through the city on a double-decker tour bus before landing in Bushwick for an afterparty.

“I have been body-painted by Andrew 10 times and it has helped me to gain confidence in my body and feel more comfortable in my skin,” said Niki Davis Fainbloom, a sex educator and nudist who took part in the Friday painting.

Golub says the theme of his body painting this year is “Hope,” adding that it is not uncommon for random members of the public to strip down and join in.

“These people aren’t planning on it. It’s just spontaneous,” he said. “It takes a tremendous amount of courage to be vulnerable like that in front of so many people and people taking photos.”

Golub was previously arrested by cops in Times Square for painting two naked women in 2011. J.C. Rice

It wasn’t always peace and love between Golub and Big Apple authorities.

In 2011 Golub was arrested and booked on misdemeanor public lewdness charges for painting two nude women in Times Square.

But New York City has no law specifically against nude body painting and full public nudity is allowed if part of a play, performance, exhibition or show — so Golub was swiftly released.

Fainbloom claims she wants to “feel more comfortable in my skin” while out in public. J.C. Rice

In 2012, the city conceded they could not stop him and the upcoming body painting day will be his ninth. As a courtesy Golub said he gives the city advance notice of when he plans to paint nude models.

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