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Mark Batty Publisher Presents: New York Dick
October 1, 2010
Contact: Taylor K. Long
Telephone: 347.830.6271
New York, NY – September 29th, 2010 – Penis, prick, wang, dong, schlong, cock, ding-a-ling, ding-dong, Johnson, member, trouser snack, pecker, peen, shaft, tally whacker, wiener… Dick. We invite you to get a load of New York Dick, graphic designer Galen Smith’s fascinating look at what happens when the audience seizes the chance to turn admen’s monologues into an open discussion.
Subversive and absurd, perverted and playful, New York Dick chronicles Smith’s years of documenting suggestive scribbles on advertisements in the New York City subway. Bursting with over a hundred penetrating photos and cocky captions, it examines not only the horn dog nature of the average New Yorker with a Sharpie, but also the effrontery of modern advertising. Whether exposing the ads’ shameless appeals to our basest instincts, or tarnishing airbrushed perfection, the penned penises turn brand-whoring into plain old whoring.
“These defacements (besides being a generalized screw you to the establishment) are part of a dissatisfied dialog with advertising, marketing and consumerism that all of us can relate to,” Smith explains. “The idiocy of the graphic was part of the kryptonite-like power of the whole enterprise. No matter how multidimensional and superhuman an ad was, it was made flat and feeble by a penis drawn on it. And no matter how ubiquitous and branded an apparent one-way communication was, a disrespectful dickish two way dialog was possible if you wanted it to be, and if you had a sharpie with you.”
About the author:
Galen Smith is a graphic designer living and working in New York City. In his twenty years as a designer and visual communicator he has created logos and branding systems, CD and LP packaging, posters, books and a wide variety of graphic ephemera. For the past ten years he has focused on book design and is currently Art Director for two imprints of Abrams; Stewart, Tabori & Chang, and Abrams Image. His work has been featured in American Corporate Identity 3 & 4, ID magazine, AM New York, and the New York Book Show. Best selling titles that he has designed include all the books authored by the Food Network host Alton Brown, including I’m Just Here for the Food, Feasting on Asphalt, and Good Eats.
Galen is a graduate of Portfolio Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and a former faculty member at Parsons School of Design. For the past three years his weekends have been spent documenting poster defacements in the New York City subway system.
About Mark Batty Publisher:
Mark Batty Publisher (http://www.markbattypublisher.com) is an independent publisher dedicated to making distinctive books on the visual art of communicating, showcasing the visual power and innovation of contemporary culture in all of its varied poses. Today, the visual comes at us from more places than ever, and its dissemination is faster and more advanced every year. Books from Mark Batty Publisher capture this acceleration on the pages of every book. Affordable, well designed, thoughtfully created, and produced to last, MBP books are artful products that readers want to hold onto forever.
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New York Dick
By Galen Smith
Page Count: 128 pages
Size: 7.5 x 7.5 inches
Format: Casebound
Publication Date: October 2010
Price: $24.95
ISBN: 978-1-9356130-2-2
For a review copy, more information, or to schedule an interview with the author, contact +1 347.830.6271, media@markbattypublisher.com.
