BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAYBanner attributed to New York’s “Poster Boy” Hi-Jacks Izod, Celebrates Brooklyn, and Lambastes Obama as Grim Reaper in a Jeep: Stunt Stunted in 20 Minutes.
Last December at this time world renowned street artist Shepard Fairey was finishing up his design for the cover of Time Magazine’s “Person of the Year”. The celebrated graphic design style of Fairey was in high demand after his designs for posters depicting Candidate and eventual President Obama were partially credited for giving populist voice to a campaign of “Change” and “Hope”.
- IF YOU LOSE THE STREET ARTISTS… The recycled ad from IZOD now re-purposed for political speech; “So Fresh, $o Brooklyn, Change, My Ass. Obama to Murder More Afgans!!” (photo ©Ali Buxton)
As the presidency nears 11 months, another street artist, Poster Boy, better known for dissembling and culture-jamming with corporate posters and subway ads in New York City, is taking the first left-wing whack at the “Change” word in street art.
We haven’t seen an outward criticism this strong in the tea-leaves of street art thus far; astro-turf-smelling hate posters notwithstanding. In addition the criticism appears to also extend to the money-making cache of packaging the word “Brooklyn” with a street art scene in a commercial sense, as the timing is during a 2000-artist deluge in the city of Miami Beach this week called Art Basel: Miami Beach.
Ali Buxton, co-owner of Brooklyn’s Ad Hoc Art, a gallery synonymous with ground-breaking shows in the genre of “Street Art” over the past three years, rushed outside their showcase at Art Basel to see the banner hanging from an overpass. She instantly knew who must have done the piece and texted friends to come and see it when it dropped at Northeast 2nd Street and 40th across from Ad Hoc’s space at 4 pm.
But anyone who wanted to see it needed to move fast because “It was taken down by security in 20 minutes,” says Buxton.
- A view of the overpass from the street shortly after a piece attributed to Poster Boy was removed by maintenance. (photo ©Ali Buxton)
