Happycorp boss Doug Jaeger was the man who came up with the Poster Boy stunt, which ended up causing friction between him and his partner, Matt Spangler. Spangler left the firm earlier this month, according to AgencySpy. And now, we hear, the place is shutting down. According to our tipster, Jaeger told his remaining staff that he was taking an agency job—but that he'd found jobs for all of them, too. But: "then came in next day and told them, he's changed mind, he's taking agency job and they're all fired effective now."

If true, this is probably symbolic of marketing trends in the new economy and the folly of corporate hubris, but also: Poster Boy destroys!

UPDATE: We received this email from former employees:

thehappycorp's core creative team, Jeff Baxter, Jon Chonko, and Alex Sturtevant, have amicably left the company and we are now doing business as Future Friends.

We've throughly enjoyed our time at thehappycorp and as Future Friends we will be completing active happycorp projects while taking on new clients and looking towards a bright future.

thefuturefriends.com

[If you have more info and you'd like to confirm or deny, email us. Pic of the Poster Boy MOMA stunt in action via NY Mag/ Doug Jaeger]

So far PB and his crew have had shows at two galleries in NYC, and one in LA. And while, yes, it's unquestionably a step up on the ladder to art world fame, you have to admit that Poster Boy's style looks better down in the tunnels than it does on a wall above ground. Still, good luck dude. Some pics of his gallery work, via Jim Kiernan's Flickr and Poster Boy's Flickr:

Kutiman's video series has generated awe and praise in the week since it debuted. One fan even issued a preemptive warning to entertainment executives who might be contemplating lawsuits:

...if your reaction to this crate of magic is "Hm. I wonder how we'd go about suing someone who ‘did this' with our IP?" instead of, "Holy crap, clearly, this is the freaking future of entertainment," it's probably time to put some ramen on your Visa and start making stuff up for your LinkedIn page.

Because, this is what your new Elvis looks like, gang.

Like Elvis, Kutiman follows in some impressive footsteps:

Girl Talk, a Pittsburgh musician and former engineer whose albums are built from unauthorized samples. His 2008 Feed the Animals was a critical smash, but Rob Walker noted in the New York Times Magazine that the "music is a lawsuit waiting to happen." (The music in the video at left is Girl Talk; the images were put together by students at Concordia University in Montréal based on a Girl Talk concert video.)

Parry Gripp, the man behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer's theme song, writes short songs to accompany his YouTube video cocktails, built from the time-wasting video service's typical fare (think pets, family home videos) and mixed with short songs he writes himself. The result is a pretty brilliant visual punk rock. At left, "Young Girl Talking About Herself."

Poster Boy, the famed "remixer" of subway advertising posters, is possibly facing trial (depending on whether his real name is Henry Matyjewicz or not). His work is, variously, anti-consumerist, anti-gentrification, and anti-war, and he's trying (possibly with some success) to turn "Poster Boy" into a broader movement.

[via Daring Fireball]

Plus "Poster Boy is a movement," etc.

MOMA hired an advertising guy named Doug Jaeger to design the museum's subway ads. He, in turn, got ad remix vandalartist of the moment Poster Boy to come in and remix some of the MOMA ads, which caused a big uproar, for reasons we cannot fathom. Now MOMA has "completely severed" its relationship with Jaeger, because he went and let this stupid artist mess up their perfectly good ads.

'Motherfuckers Opposed to Molesting Advertisements' is more like it, ha. [NYP]

NY Mag scooped this story earlier this week, which ended up bringing more attention to the whole thing than anybody except Poster Boy probably wanted. MOMA denied being complicit in the "destruction" of the ads. But you know who was complicit? MOMA's advertising guy!

The problem here is that having Poster Boy remix your ads does, of course, make them much more interesting. But it's vandalism and he's a criminal so even MOMA itself must decry this outrageous behavior, event though it clearly benefits them, and secretly they probably love it, because they're art nerds and they like being edgy or whatever.

The bigger issue is this: you're walking a very fine line, homeboy. Nothing wrong with ripping up some MOMA ads (presumably) for pay. But eventually Nike will come calling asking for the same thing, and you have to be able to tell them to go to hell. Remember: the Basquiat Reeboks didn't come out until he was long dead.
[NYP; Pic via NY Mag/ Doug Jaeger]

Perhaps "artistic depths" is a better term than "heights:" German artist Edgar Müller created this miles-deep, 3D visual crevasse for the "Festival of World Culture" in Ireland last year. Video went online just over a week ago, offering Gotham's public arts administrators an idea for a viable, cheap, recession-era alternative to last year's waterfalls.

Henry Matyjewicz, 27, rejected an arrangement in which he would plead guilty to the top charge of criminal mischief, a misdemeanor, and perform 100 hours of community service. Instead, he'll be back in court in April to face the possibility of trial, which could land him in jail for up to a year.

The NYPD and the New York Post have formed a joint media-legal cooperative to bring this unruly paster of bits of colorful posters to justice! The cops leaked to the paper that Matyjewicz was cooperating, probably trying to smear his reputation with his homeboys back on the mean streets, where he lives. Regardless, get your trial Henry, hell yes! This will require a Post reporter to stake out the courthouse again, which we find utterly hilarious, for some reason. And they're calling you 'HELL RAZOR,' which is nice.

Perhaps we are all Poster Boy. [NYP]

Please note:

January 29th I taught a class for some art students on media activism. By actually producing a piece in front of them I hope to give them both the tools and the confidence to be able to go out and re-imagine the public environment they live in on their own terms.

So this is all on the up-and-up. Heh.

In his most recent interview today, with Vulture, PB says (via email):

Henry Matyjewicz was arrested Friday night at 7:30pm. Sent to central booking. Then sent to Rikers. He was bailed on Sunday night and was released Monday 2am. The police showed up to the "Friends We Love" event in Soho and arrested Henry for partaking in a Poster Boy installation. From the beginning it was stated that Poster Boy is not about one person. What the NYPD did do is arrest an individual who volunteered to legally collage some prints at the show...Arresting Henry for being Poster Boy is like plucking a strand of Medusa's hair.

Okay, sure, maybe it is a movement by now, but Poster Boy is one guy, as far as we can tell. He sent us this photo(shop) of himself in October:

Same guy photographed for the NY Mag story that month:

Same guy as in the video last month? Maybe. Looks similar:

But if being a movement rather than one guy will get him out of his charges, then we'll go with that.

Or at least that's what Matyjewicz's friends told the New York Times.

“Poster Boy can be anybody," said Moni Pineda, one of the people behind the event where Matyjewicz was nabbed by the cops.

A guy named Henry — he could be any old random Henry, mind you! — phoned the Times and said Matyjewicz is part of, uh, basically an autonomous collective:

“Henry is one of many individuals who believe in the Poster Boy ‘movement,’ ” the man wrote later on Tuesday in an e-mail message, referring to Mr. Matyjewicz in the third person. “Henry’s part is to do legal artwork while propagating the ideas behind Poster Boy. That’s why it was O.K. for him to take the fall the other night.”He added, “Henry Matyjewicz is innocent.”

Interesting! But it would have be nice of the illegal portion of Poster Boy to do some signature pieces while Matyjewicz was at Rikers Island just to, you know, underline his innocence.  

(Image by Poster Boy)

Even the totally uncool New York Post hops onto the Poster Boy train today, ID'ing him with his government name: "Henry Matyjewicz, 27, of Bushwick, Brooklyn." Why, we remember way back in '08, when we first met PB, before all the fame and cops and paparazzi came into the equation. Those Banksy comparisons may prove to be more accurate than we ever wanted. Let's focus on the good; five newer pieces from Poster Boy's Flickr stream, below:

Poster Boy was to attend a festival involving a dozen artists profiled in a series of documentary videos. His name was on a flyer. The cops showed up. It was just that simple.

This is the second time the guerilla social commentator has been caught, according to Gothamist; the question is how much "damage" he's known to have caused to subway advertising since then — and to the one or more Brooklyn billboards he's reportedly started experimenting with.

At the very least, the artist's real name will get out. At worst, he'll be successfully prosecuted. Either way, chances are high the news will spread Poster Boy's story further and potentially spur imitators, per his stated wishes.

(Photo via Chiefmag)

Poster Boy let the Guardian tag along for some of his work, and mentioned that the NYPD Vandal Squad is squeezing his friends for information with which to hunt him down.

As a teenager "from an East Coast inner city," Poster Boy dabbled in less awesome forms of crime:

"I'd get high and steal cars," he recalls, "but my family and friends thought I was successful just in the fact that I didn't get anyone pregnant, I didn't get into drugs and I was keeping out of jail." Fired up by community college figure-drawing and philosophy classes, he got into art school in New York, where he worked on hand-me-down canvases and stole food to get by.

He began messing with posters out of curiosity and a lack of other materials: "At first, it was just something to keep me occupied while waiting on the subway." When he realised they were printed on self-adhesive vinyl, making them giant, re-stickable stickers, he saw there was fun to be had.

These days, the artist is thrilled that copycats have joined him in remixing "force-fed" advertising — even the 16 year old who flipped him off when Poster Boy gave a thumbs-up to his work.

Perhaps the chance to inspire — or build his reputation, or to simply explain what he's doing — is behind the aritst's increasing visibility. In addition to the Guardian piece, videographer Keith Haskel uploaded an interview with Poster Boy this weekend

Here's a video of Poster Boys just straight tearing a whole billboard the hell down! Left in the spot was a blank canvas, for the public. This is technically a crime but, hey, still nice. The process:

The result:

[Public Ad Campaign via Animal NY]

Poster Boy In Action from ANIMALmagazine on Vimeo.

[Animal NY]