Poster Boy (street artist)

"At first, it was just something to keep me occupied while waiting on the subway." "I was playing with the posters, cutting them up"{{cite news| author= Brian Raftery | url=https://nymag.com/arts/art/profiles/50969/ | title= Slice and Dice | work= New York Magazine | date=2008-10-05}} (he carried a razor used at work) and discovered that unlike the cardboard posters in the subway trains, the advertising posters on the subway platforms were printed on a self-adhesive material that could be stuck back down after being torn or cut out. He began to play with available images and text to create humorous "mash-ups" of advertisements. In 2008 alone, he has created over 200 manipulated underground posters in NYC subway. He compares the creation of poster "mash-ups" to hip hop "freestyling" on a microphone.{{cite news | author= Brian Sherwin | url= http://gothamist.com/2009/01/23/posterboy_street_artist.php | title= Poster Boy, Street Artist (interview). | work= The Gothamist | date= 2009-01-23 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090126151446/http://gothamist.com/2009/01/23/posterboy_street_artist.php | archive-date= 2009-01-26 }} He does not have preconceived notions of what the work will be ("I don't have anything planned…go there, see something, get inspired and do the work"{{cite web|title=Poster Boy, interview in "Spending Time with Poster Boy" video, 1:44. Recorded January 2009| date=18 January 2009 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21iVQ0iXs00 |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/21iVQ0iXs00 |archive-date=2021-12-15 |url-status=live|via=youtube}}{{cbignore}}), but uses the available images, often in a way that relates to current events. One commentator noted: "The pieces generally have a critical edge to them, making comments on the state of society and on the advertisements themselves."{{cite web|author=PSFK Blog|title=Poster Boy: Remixing Subway Ads|date=September 25, 2008|url=http://www.psfk.com/2008/09/poster-boy-remixing-subway-ads.html}} This can be explicitly political (as his pieces on Sean Bell,{{cite web|author=Poster Boy|title=untitled (My NYPD Killed Sean Bell), subway poster mash-up|year=2008|url=http://jackmax2.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/2633361143_0a51089a30_m.jpg}} "IRAN = NAM",{{cite news|author=Poster Boy|title=untitled (Ultimate Wars; Iran=Nam), subway poster mash-up|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2009/jan/17/street-art-poster-boy-in-pictures?picture=341833011|newspaper=The Guardian|date = 17 January 2009}} "Obama Drama,"{{cite web|author=Poster Boy|title=untitled (Obama Drama), subway poster mash-up|year=2008|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/26296445@N05/3033377295/in/datetaken/|via=Flickr}} and Gaza{{cite web|author=Poster Boy|title="Gaza Simulacra," collage for magazine cover|year=2009|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/26296445@N05/3191217607/}}), or a more general send up of celebrity and corporate culture.

Poster Boy has been called the "Matisse of subway-ad mash-ups," "a kind of anti-consumerist Zorro with a razor blade," and "an anti-consumerist guerilla artist."{{cite web|title=Poster Boy: The 27-year-old Brooklyn artist was arrested on Saturday|work=AdBusters Blog|first=Sarah|last=Nardi|date=6 February 2009|url=http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/aesthetico/poster_boy.html|access-date=10 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090213081143/http://www.adbusters.org/blogs/aesthetico/poster_boy.html|archive-date=13 February 2009|url-status=dead}} Culture reporter Ben Walters has said of his work "Poster Boy's work straddles two boisterous artistic subcultures: street art and culture jamming." Poster Boy has said of his technique, "No matter what I do to the piece, as long as I did something to those advertisements and that saturation, it's political. It's anti-media, anti–established art world."

Poster Boy calls the work "A social thing, as opposed to being an artist making things for bored rich people to hang above their couch." Besides the message of the individual piece, the aspect of producing anonymous public art that other people could do is part of the work. In a video interview, he has said of his work, "I want it to be free of copyright and free of authorship, as much as possible."{{cite AV media|title=Friends We Love ft. Poster Boy NYC :: Artist + Vigilante (video interview)|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOhOYyZL01g |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/BOhOYyZL01g |archive-date=2021-12-15 |url-status=live|via=YouTube}}{{cbignore}} "The overall goal for Poster Boy is to inspire others. I'd love to see people take up the Poster Boy model and create change within their environment." As his fame has grown, others have begun to emulate the technique. Whether these are unconnected individuals copying one original artist, or part of the "Poster Boy model" or "movement" has not been publicly confirmed.

Poster Boy's work is transitive (usually ripped down by MTA employees) but recorded in photographs. Photos of most of his work put up on the Poster Boy photostream on the Flickr photo sharing website.{{cite web|url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/26296445@N05/|title=Poster Boy's NYC Photostream on Flickr|date=8 March 2016}}

Poster Boy has collaborated with Aakash Nihalani, a street artist who uses brightly colored electrical tape to create geometric patterns, and has worked on large outdoor monochrome pieces covering illegal NPA billboards with Jordan Seiler of the Public Ad Campaign.{{cite web|author=Seiler, Jordan|title=PosterBoy Collaboration|work=Public Ad Campaign blog|date=21 November 2008|url=http://www.publicadcampaign.com/completedprojects/|access-date=3 February 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090131210557/http://www.publicadcampaign.com/completedprojects/|archive-date=31 January 2009|url-status=dead}}

Poster Boy's work had recently grown in scale and he has applied his technique to large billboards.{{Cite AV media|title=Video: PosterBoy Deconstructs Brooklyn Billboard|time=1:04|work=The Gothamist|date=January 2009|url=http://gothamist.com/2009/01/19/video_poster_boy_deconstructs_billb.php|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090123172944/http://gothamist.com/2009/01/19/video_poster_boy_deconstructs_billb.php|archivedate=2009-01-23}} He seems to have been unaware of the somewhat similar and earlier billboard work of the UK group Cutup.

In March 2009, a major installation of subway advertising by the Museum of Modern Art at the Atlantic / Pacific subway stop in Brooklyn, consisting just of reproductions of works shown in MOMA, was doctored by what was claimed to be "the mysterious Poster Boy collective" along with Doug Jaeger of thehappycorp. The cutups included part of a Goodyear tire appearing to be floating with Monet's waterlilies.{{cite web|author=Finch, Charlie|title=No Smiles at MOMA|work=artnet|year=2009|url=http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/features/finch/finch3-3-09.asp}}

The initial Poster Boy work was all illicit, and he claimed "I don't want to make any money off of it. I don't want to bring it into the galleries.". However, after his arrest in January 2009 his work has been shown in galleries, including a one-person show in Eastern District Brooklyn, April 3–26, 2009. He was also included in the group show, Razors, Tape, Glass, at Jajo Gallery in Newark New Jersey. This move has been criticized in the street art blogs.{{cite web|url=http://animalnewyork.com/2009/04/poster-boy-should-remain-underground/|date=9 April 2009|title=POSTER BOY SHOULD REMAIN UNDERGROUND|author=Turco, Bucky|work=ANIMAL|access-date=10 July 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://gawker.com/5211860/is-poster-boy-still-good-in-a-gallery|date=14 April 2009|title=Is Poster Boy Still Good in a Gallery?|last=Nolan|first=Hamilton|work=Gawker}}

Poster Boy's cutting and pasting of subway advertisements is illegal. Previously their work had been noted by the MTA police, but did not seem a high priority for them. "Vandalism of our property is illegal, and we prosecute to the fullest extent of the law," spokesperson Aaron Donovan told reporter Brian Raftery. "That being said, the problem to date has been minimal."{{cite web|title=Quoted by Brian Raftery, 2008|date=2 October 2008 |url=https://nymag.com/arts/art/profiles/50969/}} He has had several brushes with the law, but on occasions transit police have let him go. On January 30, 2009, while attending a benefit for Friends We Love artist's video documentaries, a person thought to be Poster Boy was arrested by undercover police agents waiting for him. This "Poster Boy" was charged with two misdemeanor counts of criminal mischief and went before a Judge on February 9, 2009.{{cite news| author= Randy Kennedy | url=https://nytimes.com/2009/02/04/arts/design/04post.html?8dpc | title= Poster Boy is caught, or is it a stand-in? | work= New York Times | date=2009-02-04}}{{cite news | author= Billy Parker | url= http://gothamist.com/2009/01/31/nypd_rolls_up_on_posterboy.php | title= NYPD Rolls Up on Poster Boy | work= The Gothamist | date= 2009-01-31 | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090203025844/http://gothamist.com/2009/01/31/nypd_rolls_up_on_posterboy.php | archive-date= 2009-02-03 }}

On December 16, 2009, Matyjewicz pleaded guilty to the offenses. In exchange, the judge agreed to vacate the felony provided Matyjewicz served 210 hours of community service. Once completed, he would get three years' probation.{{cite news| url=https://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/05/10/in-a-sharp-turnabout-poster-boy-sentenced-to-jail/ | work=The Wall Street Journal | first=Nikki | last=Waller | title=Poster Boy Loses Plea Deal, Is Sentenced to Jail | date=May 10, 2010}}

Sometime around January 2009, Poster Boy's underground fame became such that there seemed to be several imitators, and his idea of having others "take up the Poster Boy model" seemed to be catching on. There even seems to be some confusion over whether the Poster Boy, arrested on January 30, 2009, was the same Poster Boy who initiated the subway collages, or a "legal" above ground stand in. The New York Times reports a call from Poster Boy saying the man who was arrested "is one of the many individuals who believe in the Poster Boy 'movement'" The Adbusters website notes that "Sources close to the artist maintain that there are, in fact, multiple 'Poster Boys' presently engaged in the project." In an interview after the arrest, Henry Matyjewicz has said that "Henry is an artist just inspired by what's going on with the Poster Boy movement."{{cite news| author= Matt Harvey | url=http://www.nypress.com/article-19432-who-is-poster-boy.html| title=Who Is Poster Boy? | work=New York Press| date=2009-02-18 | access-date=2009-02-22}}

• Posterchild, a Toronto-based street artist
• List of street artists in the United States
• Street art

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Articles and interviews:

• Edward Winkleman. [http://www.edwardwinkleman.com/2008/10/search-for-true-selflessness-in-art.html "The Search for True Selflessness in Art Making"], 8 October 2008.
• Randy Kennedy. [https://nytimes.com/2009/02/04/arts/design/04post.html?8dpc "Poster Boy Is Caught, or Is It a Stand-In?"] New York Times, 4 February 2009.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090126151446/http://gothamist.com/2009/01/23/posterboy_street_artist.php "Poster Boy, Street Artist" (interview)]. The Gothamist. January 23, 2009.
• [http://www.publicadcampaign.com/2008/10/poster-boy-informal-interview.html "Poster Boy Informal Interview" with Jordan Seiler, Public Ad Campaign]{{Dead link|date=May 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. October 2008.
• [http://www.myartspace.com/blog/2009/01/art-space-talk-poster-boy.html "Art Space Talk: Poster Boy" interview with Brian Sherwin on the MyArtSpace Bolg]. January 29, 2009.

Videos:

• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OP1hXTlQXhc Friends We Love :: 120 Seconds w/ Poster Boy NYC" video monologue, 2:00.]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFdIy6hpZus "Poster Boy NYC Art" Fan compilation video, 3:12.]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4EGXunbV5E "Posterboy NYC Subway Art" Fan compilation video, 1:46.]
• [http://vimeo.com/2308257 "Poster Boy In Action" Video by Animalmagazine, 1:25. Posted on Vimeo, December 2008.]
• [http://www.chiefmag.com/blog/?p=6349 Jacqueline Lewis, Editor of Chief Magazine, talks to Poster Boy on video about his work]

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Category:American graffiti artists

Category:Culture jamming

Category:Artists from New York (state)

Category:Anonymity pseudonyms

Category:Pseudonymous artists

Category:Living people

Category:Guerrilla artists

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)