The Netherlands Board of Tourism has temporarily transformed the Grand Central – Times Square shuttle into the moving advertisement you see above. The cars were made over as part of the “Just be. In Holland” ad campaign by the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions.
One car is dressed to evoke the interior of a grand salon. The seats are wrapped to resemble tufted red benches, the ceiling sports faux plaster medallions, and there’s mahogany wainscot, a rich damask wall covering, and a selection of iconic Dutch masterpieces, including Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring.
The ad campaign ends March 4th, so time is running out if you want to check these out.
The next big subway art book is on its way out. Poster Boy: The War of Artis a collection of Poster Boy’s best works. There aren’t too many details available yet, but the following description is floating around:
His cut and slash mash-ups of subway platform billboards only exist in New York City, but Poster Boy’s artful and funny appropriations of advertising have gotten him attention the world over. The New York Times dubbed him an “anti-consumerist Zorro with a razor blade, a sense of humor and a talent for collage”; the Guardian UK said of his work, it “is witty, web-savvy and economical . . . and the only materials it requires are chutzpah, imagination and a 50 cent blade.”
Poster Boy tweaks corporate copy, replacing it with incisive and playful puns and turns of phrase rich with innuendo and political punch. Beautiful models turn ghastly and iconic spokespeople become the mouthpieces for Poster Boy’s ideas. Poster Boy: The War of Art collects his best work yet.
The book is set for release on March 2nd, 2010, but you can preorder it on Amazon. I did as soon as I found out about it. Check back in March for a review!
Mr. Noorda’s best-known work in the United States was for the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which in 1966 commissioned his firm, Unimark International, to modernize and unify the look of the subway system’s signs. The firm had been recommended by Mildred Constantine, an influential design curator at the Museum of Modern Art.
Noorda’s designs hold up well, even 40 years after their inception. They have become icons of New York’s urban scene and through them he is survived.
From Poster Boy's Flickr, posted just before his first arrest
Well-known subway artist, Poster Boy, was arrested again on Friday after a cop caught him at the Jefferson Street L train station cutting the heads off of people in an ad. His arrest comes just as he was about to finish his sentence of 210 hours of community service from a previous arrest about one year ago. A spokeswoman for the Brooklyn District Attorney said, “We plan on asking the judge to throw out the plea deal and sentence [him] to jail.”
According to the NY Post’s sources, Poster Boy, “told the cop he should get a break because it was the first time he did it — but admitted he was the infamous Poster Boy after the officer ran his name through a computer.”
The Subway Art Blog has recently spotted other stations along the L in Bushwick with several ads missing heads. These decapitations may have to do with a larger project Poster Boy had in store.
Since the earthquake in Haiti, many artists have started initiatives to raise relief money; the artists we have featured on Subway Art Blog are no exception. The video above was filmed by visual journalist Kate Lord for NBC New York’s website. Two subway musicians, Erich Woodrum and Francois Nnang, are donating half of their earnings to Red Cross for earthquake relief.
Subversions photographer Jordana Zeldin, who we have featured several times, has founded an organization called Headshots for Haiti. Participating headshot photographers in the group are pledging to donate a portion of the proceeds from their sessions this February to Partners in Health’s Earthquake Relief effort.
Please check out both of these projects and consider donating to their charities. Please e-mail us if you have heard about other subway artist’s efforts to help Haiti.
Congratulations to Posterchild and his new fiancee! He proposed to her by surprising her with this street art installation. From Blade Diary:
She thought she was just helping me out with another street art project; I kept this covered until after it was installed and after the unveiling I was expecting some kind of reaction- but it took a little while to convince her that this was a proposal for real, and not just some art project!
Illustrious graffiti artist and fellow New Yorker, Eric Haze has just released a new website featuring artwork spanning nearly 30 years of his career. The “Roots” section is of particular interest to us as it includes an entire subsection of his early subway graffiti works. It is truly a blast from the past seeing all of these old school trains, outfitted in intricate, large-scale graffiti.
Check out additional subway graffiti and troves more of Haze’s work at Interhaze. more…
The Subway Art Blog turns one today. It’s been a crazy awesome year. The site started as a place for me to post my stupid cell phone photos and it seems to be starting to flourish as a hub for subway art on the web. Thanks to everyone who has contributed and has taken an interest in this project!
Photo taken from the F train platform at Delancey St.
is a collection of Poster Boy’s best works. There aren’t too many details available yet, but the following description is floating around:
