CANCELLED POSTER BOY EXHIBITION OPENS AT
REAL ART WAYS OCTOBER 20, 2011

Poster Boy: Street Alchemy 2.0
October 20, 2011-January 30, 2012
Opening Reception Thursday, October 20, 2011, 6-8 PM

Hartford, Connecticut - Real Art Ways announces that it will present an exhibition by Poster Boy. Armed with a razor blade, Poster Boy manipulates vinyl advertisements to create startling, harsh or sometimes humorous mash-ups which raise a wide array of political issues.

An opening reception on Thursday, October 20 from 6-8 PM will be held as part of Creative Cocktail Hour, Real Art Ways' monthly third Thursday gathering. Creative Cocktail Hour is from 6-10 PM; admission is $10/$5 Real Art Ways members.

The exhibition, entitled Street Alchemy 2.0, contains works that were originally designed for an exhibition at Trinity College which school administrators canceled in mid-September. The exhibition was cancelled due to "legal issues associated with Poster Boy and his artwork, chief among them was that illegally obtained materials may have been used in creating his artwork" as cited in the Hartford Courant.

The installation Street Alchemy 2.0 is an immersive spatial experience created with altered billboards. Billboards typically loom over us. Poster Boy subverts this relationship by bringing them down to eye level within a gallery space and manipulating their meaning.

Real Art Ways has a history of championing artists and artistic expression and promoting dialogue about censored works. "Support for artists is central to Real Art Ways' mission," says executive director Will K. Wilkins. "Poster Boy's work is especially relevant at this moment, with criticisms of corporate power on the rise."

About Poster Boy
Poster Boy describes itself as an artist collective based in Brooklyn, New York. Poster Boy is known for manipulating and repurposing self-adhesive advertisements in the platforms of New York City subway stations to create satiric, collage-like street art. Combining disparate elements of multiple advertisements into one composition, the work calls attention to the oversaturation of commercially driven media that individuals are exposed to on a daily basis. There is always an element of humor in Poster Boy's work, and it is usually sardonic and politically driven. The work is critical of corporate and celebrity culture. It is a raw and spontaneous form of culture jamming and is inspired by "mash-ups" and the impromptu nature of hip hop "freestyling."

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