A MANHATTAN-BASED artist tragically died after he was struck by an oncoming train inside an Upper East Side station in New York.

Police say Alexander Gardega was standing near the tracks located at the 77th Street 6 train station in Lenox Hill when the deadly incident took place.

It is believed the man had either fallen from the platform or was standing on the edge of the tracks at the time he was struck, reports the Daily Mail.

The operator of the train, James Muñoz, 46, told the New York Daily News the emergency brakes kicked in at the time the train was about 100 feet from the entrance.

When the train stopped, Mr Muñoz said he found Gardega’s body “between the seventh train car and the maintenance catwalk that runs along the tracks,” the report said.

Earlier this year, Gardega put his own “Pissing Dog” next to Wall Street’s “Fearless Girl”.

Gardega told the New York Post that “Fearless Girl was corporate nonsense” and done as a

publicity stunt by a Boston-based financial firm.

“It has nothing to do with feminism, and it is disrespect to the artist that made the bull,” he said at the time. “That bull had integrity.”

Gerdega’s loved ones said the artist was “brilliant and passionate” and “loved to provoke reactions from people with his work.”