Street Art: Turning Ads Into Art NY Style -- Phantom Cut And Paster Hits The Subway

By Noah Mallin

Readers of this blog (Hi Mom!) know that I'm a fan of clever art in public spaces (Ala anonymous Brit graffiti artist/sculptor/prankster Banksy). Blog And I Am Not Lying
has great pics of this mystery found artist's work (including the ones seen here), currently in subway stations now. Dig the Iran = Nam piece made out of the raw material of a big-budget Hollywood ad campaign above. Iron Man posters are a speciality of this phantom:


A trenchant commentary on recent baseball developments:

Mmm, cut and pastey goodness makes me feel a disturbance in the force:

Art: New York MTA Bans Life Lessons, Multiple Dads

Boing Boing reports on this recently spotted switcheroo on the L Train banning the fathers from TV's Full House. Apparently Deej and the other kids are welcome but their creepy fathers have to stay home. Not that I'm complaining.

Art: The Art of Joseph

Detail from One of Joseph's "NY Cenes"

My wife has a great eye, especially for unexpected gems. Since 2003 she has been collecting the work of Joseph, an artist who lives in New York and can usually be found working freehand in subway stations. He has a number of themes and motifs that he returns to: looping trains, alien saucer attacks, streetlights, all in his distinctive style. Among the Joseph pieces we have hanging is a rare one that includes a battery powered light-up element. Here is a link to Joseph's MySpace page which has great information on him and images of his work. Many of his pieces are done on scraps of paper which he sometimes mounts on cardboard. His vivid colors are a hallmark of his style, though last night my wife and I saw Joseph and bought a new NY Cene (similar to the one above) that was totally black and white.