Melon Farmers

Street Alchemy 2.0
Real Art Ways Hartford, Connecticut
Until 30th January 2012.

A previously canceled exhibition of work of Poster Boy, the semi-anonymous street art provocateur known for slicing up and reconfiguring advertisements in New York subway stations, is back on.

The show, titled Street Alchemy, had been scheduled to go on view at Trinity College in September, but was abruptly canceled when the dubious legality of his work came to light. At the eleventh hour, Trinity got cold feet regarding Poster Boy's practice of using materials stolen from public advertisements.

The Connecticut-born artist, nee Henry Matyjewicz, quickly claimed censorship: They don't know where the billboards come from, and I'm not going to incriminate myself, a representative for the artist said in an interview with the BBC.

Luckily for Poster Boy, the good people at Real Art Ways, an alternative, multidisciplinary arts organization in Hartford, Connecticut, were undeterred by the unorthodox provenance of his materials.

Executive Director Will K. Wilkins commented, the decision to cancel the show brought Poster Boy's work to our attention... we don't ask artists where they got their materials. They don't have to pass a test. The deployment of appropriated material, Wilkins says, is intrinsic to the work: the implication that they are stolen is part and parcel of the artistic expression.

The show, entitled Street Alchemy 2.0, will run until January 30, 2012.

Hide/Seek
Brooklyn Museum, New York
18th November 2011 to 12th February 2012

The art exhibition Hide/Seek cam to the public's attention courtesy of nutter rants targeted at David Wojnarowicz's 1987 short film A Fire in My Belly.

Predictably, the Christians' crusade continues as local groups are now pressuring the Brooklyn Museum to remove the late artist's film from the exhibition.

Both the Christian Post and Daily News note that the Brooklyn Museum has received many complaints from members of local groups outraged by the shortened, 13-minute version of the 21-minute original's ten-second segment in which ants crawl over a crucifix.

In reaction to the forthcoming exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, Director Arnold Lehman said he received thousands of pre-programmed emails from a Catholic group. Lehman said the film is an important piece of American art history. He told the Daily News: For a city that prides itself on diversity and creativity, there couldn't be a better exhibition.

Meanwhile Pastor A. R. Bernard, who leads Brooklyn's Christian Cultural Center said: What is the point? I think this is the piece in the Hide/seek collection they really need to hide.

Undeterred, the museum plans to show every piece in the Hide/Seek exhibition, which opens November 18 and remains on view through February 12.