J. shot me a text this morning with news that this sculpture was in Tribeca Park and I better come soon before he “leaves.” (We were both tempted to take him, but didn’t have the guts.) (I gave it the name — but open to others.)

He is the work of NYC UPDATE: Tribecan! (and more on him soon) artist Warren King, whose life-sized cardboard sculptures often reflect his Chinese heritage.

His last series, Shaoxing Villagers, were based on his first visit to China, in 2016, and to the village where generations of his family had lived.

“He was approached on the streets by people who, amazingly, had memories of his grandparents from when they had lived there before the Chinese Civil War – people with whom he shared a cultural, racial, and ancestral connection but a connection that was severed when his grandparents left that place 50 years ago,” reads his website. The result is an “ongoing project to recreate the residents of his grandparents’ home village one individual at a time.”

This particular villager was created in record time — two and a half days — in a personal effort of King’s to loosen up the creative muscles. “I’ve been getting too caught up with details lately, trying to make every edge perfect even in places where no one would ever notice,” he wrote on Instagram. “So I decided to make a few figures as fast and loose as possible, without overthinking.”

Lucky us!