Poster Boy

"Poster Boy" is the name of a New York City graffiti artist who creates collage out of public billboards and subway posters by cutting the posters up with a razor, then re-applying the pieces to make whatever art he wants. His identity is apparently unknown or uncertain.

A man was arrested in early 2009 and charged with being responsible for some of the Poster Boy graffiti in New York subways, but he denies being Poster Boy.

To make things more uncertain, the original Poster Boy has called publicly for many graffiti artists to do the same as he is, so it is unknown whether the person arrested is the original Poster Boy, or just a supporter.

His work generally is critical of society, and he turns the public advertisements and billboards against the person or company that paid to put it up. He has been called Zorro with a razor blade, and a guerrilla artist.

There is a group in the UK called "Cutup" that does similar public art. Some of his work has been shown in galleries.

The authorities remove and destroy his art as soon as they find it. So the only evidence of his art generally are the pictures that people take of it -- proof that it existed at some point in time.

Here's a link to an article about him in New York Magazine: http://nymag.com/arts/art/profiles/50969/


Remember when the New York Post ran the drawing showing a monkey being shot and killed, and it clearly was supposed to be President Obama being murdered? This was his response.


This is a trash-can inside a subway station.




Sean Bell was a young black man whose friends took him out to a club, the night before his wedding, for his last night as a bachelor. When the young men left the club, police opened fire on their car for no apparent reason (nobody claims these young men had done anything wrong), killing Sean Bell and seriously injuring two other young men, shooting 50 rounds into the car. Three of the five detectives involved were indicted on criminal charges and tried, but acquitted.