Like De Feo’s international street art flower project, his paintings and drawings have a childlike optimism while also examining more mature themes such as the ephemeral nature of all living things. Additionally, by installing some of his self portrait paintings onto city streets he metaphorically places his inside, outside.

Best known in the street art movement for his ubiquitous flower image, De Feo has been creating illegal works on the streets of international cities for over seventeen years. Not limited to the streets as his canvas, his work has also appeared in galleries and museums around the world including the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT; MASS MoCA; Museo de Arte, Puerto Rico; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY; the A3 Art Fair, Paris; Manifesta 7, Trento/Trentino, Italy; and The National Gallery, Bangladesh, amongst others.

Michael has also been featured on the cover of New York Magazine's "Reasons to Love New York" (three times) and participated in the Wooster on Spring exhibition at New York's "Candle Building" which was one of the top-ten cultural events of 2006 as selected by Roberta Smith of the New York Times. In addition, Michael's work has been featured in film documentaries, most notably Alice Arnold's "To Be Seen" which was aired on PBS/WNET and screened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2006. Most recently, Michael also makes a brief appearance in Banksy’s new film, “Exit Through The Gift Shop” screening globally.

De Feo's award winning children's book, "Alphabet City: Out on the Streets", employs New York City as his canvas - using his paintings glued on the streets of Manhattan to illustrate each letter of the alphabet. It's now in its third printing by Gingko Press. Newsweek International had this to say about his book, “De Feo’s art evokes beauty and optimism with a childlike simplicity while paying homage to gritty Manhattan.”
Michael’s new body of work is an expansion of his concentration with self portraiture, now including portraits of family, friends, and lovers. His paintings and drawings frequently explore the archetypical themes of love, death, loss, conflict, and renewal. Gary Michael Dault of Canada’s Globe and Mail says, “De Feo is a fine, inventive colourist, and his self-portraits glow with a richness that lends an art-historical stability to their convulsive immediacy.”