IS POSTER BOY BACK?
This looks like the work of NYC’s masked avenger Poster Boy.
About a year ago, we were seeing more of these crude cut and paste jobs, even a street art collaboration with NYC street artist Aakash Nihalani. On Jan, 30, Poster Boy was busted by undercover cops in a Soho gallery space and carted off to Rikers. The poster mash-ups came to a halt and Poster Boys identity was revealed as Henry Matvjewicz, a 27 year old art student originally from Connecticut…or was it? The New York Times published a piece on February 4, that Matvjewicz was just a stand-in…and the real poster boy was still at large looming in the shadows, dicing up posters. Matvejewicz story has holes, making the copy-cat artist story plausible, but for now, Matvejewicz has officially taken the heat and continues to stands up for his Poster Boy manifesto. So whats the conviction behind it all?
“Nobody wants to see those ads. Some ads are clever, you know. You watch the Superbowl and you see like a funny ad or a clever ad, and there is some art behind it. You know, composition and color, there’s some appreciation. But then when it’s that big and in-your-face and it’s so aggressive; you get kinda tired of it. You’re like, Damn, I wish that shit would just like disappear. And then someone like Poster Boy comes by and just says, “Fuck it.” I’m going to cut it down with same razor I use in the subway..there are things out there that are not right and probably always will be things that are not right, and you have to decide your level of involvement and how you have to change that. I’ve decided that as a human being, as Henry Matyjewicz, as an artist, as a citizen, as an American. I understand what I can do and what I want to do and my involvement; and I think people should do that too and not be afraid to get arrested because that fear is why were are in this predicament—this moral predicament— in the first place, you know. You need to stop being scared and being empowered and thinking you can make a difference.”- Poster Boy
Whether or not this newly diced up ad is the mark of the actual Poster Boy or not may remain a mystery…one thing for sure, the spirit of Poster Boy is still alive in NYC.
