MICHAEL SAVIELLO
IN THE NEWS
Recent Updates & Headlines
FOX5NY: BARBERSHOP MANAGER BECOMES
A PAINTER IN HIS LUNCH HOUR
July 29, 2019
It's never too late to follow your passion. Bayonne, New Jersey, native Michael "Big Mike" Saviello has been a manager at the iconic Astor Place Hairstylists since 1987. A few years ago, he decided to answer a creative calling.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: HOW BIG MIKE, A BARBERSHOP PAINTER, BROKE INTO THE ART WORLD
June 28, 2019
From lunch-break sessions at the easel to Instagram fame to a solo show at a Chelsea gallery. In the words of one art dealer: ‘How dare he use such colors?’
VICE NEWS
THIS BARBERSHOP MANAGER IS THE LAST REAL NEW YORKER
November 16, 2018
A new documentary short by the Instagram hotshot Nicolas Heller shows it's never too late to pick up a hobby.
PIX11
‘IT IS NEVER TOO LATE’: NJ MAN WHO SPENT DECADES PAINTING ON HIS LUNCH BREAK NOW SELLING HIS PAINTINGS FOR THOUSANDS
December 6, 2018
CHELSEA, Manhattan — Sometimes dreams really do come true and 57-year-old Mike Saviello from Bayonne knows it.
He's always dreamed of being a painter. but, somehow, life always seemed to get in the way.
“When you get married, you got to buy a house, pay bills,” Mike Saviello, the painter, told PIX11 News. “You’re not going to be paying your bills as an artist starting out."
Now, after more than 40 years of working as manager at Astor Place Hair Stylists and painting during his lunch break, Saviello is one of eleven artists in an exhibition at the prestigious E.S.P. Gallery in Chelsea where his paintings are being offered for $10,000 a piece and a giant chess board for $15,000.
PIX 11
EAST VILLAGE HAIR SALON MANAGER UNVEILS SECRET PAINTING PASSION
November 18, 2018
PIX11 | EAST VILLAGE, Manhattan — When was the last time you went to an art gallery opening or a movie screening at a hair salon?
That’s what happened with the talented Mike Saviello, who has been the manager of Astor Place Hairstylists for 40 years and a lunchtime painter for just a little more than one year.
“I always wanted to be a painter my whole life, I just didn’t have the time,” the 57-year-old husband, father and grandfather, told PIX11 News.
To say Big Mike is a New York character is putting it mildly.
NBC NEW YORK
NYC 'UNOFFICIAL TALENT SCOUT' SHARES STORY OF BIG MIKE'S SUPRISING LUNCH BREAK HABIT
November 15, 2018
Over the course of two years, Big Mike and Heller became close friends as the filmmaker learned more about how Mike picked up his high school hobby of painting, and started creating heavily textured, 3-D portraits of everything from his wife -- who is the muse of a majority of his paintings -- to other icons like Robert DeNiro, Marilyn Monroe, and even Nick himself.
IN THE KNOW
SECRET ART STUDIO
November 2, 2018
Robert De Niro and Mayor Bill de Blasio have both had portraits made in the secret art studio of this NYC barber shop.
HIDDEN TALENT: BIG MIKE (NYC DOCUMENTARY)
January 30, 2019
Short documentary film about Michael Saviello and his private gallery of over 50 paintings in the back of the popular Astor Place Hairstylists in New York City. Even as a customer, you wouldn't know that there's something special hidden in the back. He's done paintings for Robert De Niro and Mayor Bill De Blasio.
We filmed over the course of three days. For the first two days I had to catch him on his lunch break! On day three his art was being shown at a gallery in Chelsea.
IN THE NEWS
Recent Updates & Headlines
FOX5NY: BARBERSHOP MANAGER BECOMES
A PAINTER IN HIS LUNCH HOUR
July 29, 2019
It's never too late to follow your passion. Bayonne, New Jersey, native Michael "Big Mike" Saviello has been a manager at the iconic Astor Place Hairstylists since 1987. A few years ago, he decided to answer a creative calling.
THE NEW YORK TIMES: HOW BIG MIKE, A BARBERSHOP PAINTER, BROKE INTO THE ART WORLD
June 28, 2019
From lunch-break sessions at the easel to Instagram fame to a solo show at a Chelsea gallery. In the words of one art dealer: ‘How dare he use such colors?’
VICE NEWS
THIS BARBERSHOP MANAGER IS THE LAST REAL NEW YORKER
November 16, 2018
A new documentary short by the Instagram hotshot Nicolas Heller shows it's never too late to pick up a hobby.
PIX11
‘IT IS NEVER TOO LATE’: NJ MAN WHO SPENT DECADES PAINTING ON HIS LUNCH BREAK NOW SELLING HIS PAINTINGS FOR THOUSANDS
December 6, 2018
CHELSEA, Manhattan — Sometimes dreams really do come true and 57-year-old Mike Saviello from Bayonne knows it.
He's always dreamed of being a painter. but, somehow, life always seemed to get in the way.
“When you get married, you got to buy a house, pay bills,” Mike Saviello, the painter, told PIX11 News. “You’re not going to be paying your bills as an artist starting out."
Now, after more than 40 years of working as manager at Astor Place Hair Stylists and painting during his lunch break, Saviello is one of eleven artists in an exhibition at the prestigious E.S.P. Gallery in Chelsea where his paintings are being offered for $10,000 a piece and a giant chess board for $15,000.
PIX 11
EAST VILLAGE HAIR SALON MANAGER UNVEILS SECRET PAINTING PASSION
November 18, 2018
PIX11 | EAST VILLAGE, Manhattan — When was the last time you went to an art gallery opening or a movie screening at a hair salon?
That’s what happened with the talented Mike Saviello, who has been the manager of Astor Place Hairstylists for 40 years and a lunchtime painter for just a little more than one year.
“I always wanted to be a painter my whole life, I just didn’t have the time,” the 57-year-old husband, father and grandfather, told PIX11 News.
To say Big Mike is a New York character is putting it mildly.
NBC NEW YORK
NYC 'UNOFFICIAL TALENT SCOUT' SHARES STORY OF BIG MIKE'S SUPRISING LUNCH BREAK HABIT
November 15, 2018
Over the course of two years, Big Mike and Heller became close friends as the filmmaker learned more about how Mike picked up his high school hobby of painting, and started creating heavily textured, 3-D portraits of everything from his wife -- who is the muse of a majority of his paintings -- to other icons like Robert DeNiro, Marilyn Monroe, and even Nick himself.
IN THE KNOW
SECRET ART STUDIO
November 2, 2018
Robert De Niro and Mayor Bill de Blasio have both had portraits made in the secret art studio of this NYC barber shop.
HIDDEN TALENT: BIG MIKE (NYC DOCUMENTARY)
January 30, 2019
Short documentary film about Michael Saviello and his private gallery of over 50 paintings in the back of the popular Astor Place Hairstylists in New York City. Even as a customer, you wouldn't know that there's something special hidden in the back. He's done paintings for Robert De Niro and Mayor Bill De Blasio.
We filmed over the course of three days. For the first two days I had to catch him on his lunch break! On day three his art was being shown at a gallery in Chelsea.
January 30, 2019
IN THE NEWS
Recent Updates & Headlines
NBC NEW YORK
NYC 'UNOFFICIAL TALENT SCOUT' SHARES STORY OF BIG MIKE'S SUPRISING LUNCH BREAK HABIT
November 15, 2018
Over the course of two years, Big Mike and Heller became close friends as the filmmaker learned more about how Mike picked up his high school hobby of painting, and started creating heavily textured, 3-D portraits of everything from his wife -- who is the muse of a majority of his paintings -- to other icons like Robert DeNiro, Marilyn Monroe, and even Nick himself.
IN THE KNOW
SECRET ART STUDIO
November 2, 2018
Robert De Niro and Mayor Bill de Blasio have both had portraits made in the secret art studio of this NYC barber shop.
NBC NEW YORK
NYC 'UNOFFICIAL TALENT SCOUT' SHARES STORY OF BIG MIKE'S SUPRISING LUNCH BREAK HABIT
Over the course of two years, Big Mike and Heller became close friends as the filmmaker learned more about how Mike picked up his high school hobby of painting, and started creating heavily textured, 3-D portraits of everything from his wife -- who is the muse of a majority of his paintings -- to other icons like Robert DeNiro, Marilyn Monroe, and even Nick himself.
Big Mike Takes Lunch
"Big Mike Takes Lunch" by filmmaker Nicolas Heller, is a documentary that captures a day in the life of Michael Saviello, manager of 40 years for the iconic East Village barber shop, Astor Place Hairstylists. For the past year, Mike has devoted his 45-minute lunch break to something he hasn’t done since Highschool... Painting.
PIX11
‘IT IS NEVER TOO LATE’: NJ MAN WHO SPENT DECADES PAINTING ON HIS LUNCH BREAK NOW SELLING HIS PAINTINGS FOR THOUSANDS
Sometimes dreams really do come true and 57-year-old Mike Saviello from Bayonne knows it.
He's always dreamed of being a painter. but, somehow, life always seemed to get in the way.
“When you get married, you got to buy a house, pay bills,” Mike Saviello, the painter, told PIX11 News. “You’re not going to be paying your bills as an artist starting out."
PIX 11
EAST VILLAGE HAIR SALON MANAGER UNVEILS SECRET PAINTING PASSION
When was the last time you went to an art gallery opening or a movie screening at a hair salon?
That’s what happened with the talented Mike Saviello, who has been the manager of Astor Place Hairstylists for 40 years and a lunchtime painter for just a little more than one year.
