Voted Time Out Magazine’s Most Creative New Yorker, dubbed a re-inventor of collage, the Big Kahuna, profiled on BBC and featured by Forbes, as a self-represented artist, Borbay curates, promotes and manages all aspects of his work.
A Boston University graduate, Borbay’s work encompasses four spheres: portraiture, locations, live event painting and branding.
Borbay’s portraits focus on celebrity. Delving into the complexity of each subject, he has texturally recreated the likeness of stars including: Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Justin Theroux, Daniel Day Lewis, Kanye West, Jay-Z and Lil Wayne.
Frequently painting on-location, Borbay has set-up his easel around the world in famed locations and destinations including: Walt Disney World, The Guggenheim, Las Vegas, Milan, Minneapolis and Shanghai.
Many of his live event paintings benefit charities, and include: Birdies for Breast Cancer, Broadway Bares at Planet Hollywood and The Roseland Ballroom, Hope For Them Foundation and ARTPROV at Michaels.
In April 2012, the Major League Baseball Fan Cave launched, showcasing four of Borbay’s works. In 2011, Bomb Wines released their Oregon Pinot Noir, featuring a label painted and designed by Borbay. Also in 2011, Advertising Week commissioned Borbay to create a painting which appeared in the back of NYC Taxi Cabs, Business Week, Fast Company and AdWeek.
In addition to those listed above, Borbay has donated work to the following charities: Make-A-Wish Foundation, Children of Armenia Foundation, A.C.E., We Love Japan and The Skin Cancer Foundation.
Covered by press across the world, including Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, New York Times, The Source, NBC’s The Grio, Complex and BlackBook Magazine — you can get in touch with Borbay here.
Select Exhibitions
May 2013-June 2013: “Situation Raw“, 10 West 18th Street, Manhattan
January 2013-February 2013: “Kick Ass Actors in Kick Ass Roles“, 10 West 18th Street, Manhattan
April 2012-November 2012: “Major League Baseball Fan Cave“, 692 Broadway, Manhattan
March 2012: “Big Lobby Art“, Open House Gallery, 201 Mulberry Street, Manhattan
January 2012: “Gratiffyti“, Iona College, New Rochelle, NY
September 2011: “#KingsOfHipHop“, 85 10th Avenue, Manhattan
July 2011: “Clipped“, 90 Stanton St., Manhattan
April 2011: “Klimat“, 77 East 7th St., Manhattan
April 2010: “Painting Resurrected“, 393 Broadway, Manhattan
January 2010: “Urbania“, 200 5th Avenue, Manhattan
A Window Into the Past
Borbay’s professional career began as a graphic designer in Boston, immediately followed by a six month stint on low-budget reality TV. Having saved some green whilst acting the fool, Borbay moved to Manhattan with his friend the art dealer, and spent 2003-04 as a stand-up comedian and producer.
Stumbling home down Fifth Avenue on night, his friend Rory gestured upward saying “I know someone who need someone in this big black building.” 24 hours later, he was interviewed and hired at The Trump Organization. After nearly two years of wheeling and dealing in development, he moved on to an advertising recruiting firm.
From there, Borbay landed a job at an interactive advertising firm, where he started out as a recruiter and pr guy, and quickly worked his way up to Business Director. Today, Borbay is a professional artist, who works and resides in the Upper East Side of Manhattan with his acupuncturist/herbalist wife, Erin.
Oh, what picture were you talking about in the park? Kelly..
ah, Holland Park, sorry bit blind this morning, shall credit and link you! Kelly
I wish you the best on your quest to artistic domination!
Thank you David! Likewise sir…
Borbay,
You are an inspiration to me, my friend. I have gained much through reading your site and following your artistic progress. You have proven that the impossible is, in fact, possible.
I wish you the best in your artistic conquest of NYC and beyond. I love your work and your ambition. Keep on paintin’
Dave
Jason!
What’s going on man? Glad to see your art taking off, just voted for you on TONY so good luck!
Sze
Just voted – So great to see your art – remember the Ice Tea project in college?
@Sze: Thank you, truly appreciated! How are you?
@Erica: I surely do, “Mr. T Iced Tea, I pity the fool who doesn’t drink my Iced T”
Jason, I love your work!!! It is very inspired and makes me want to breathe in Life’s colors and beauty! I think you will do very well! Mike
Jason, BIG Congrats on the Urbania Event. It appears
to have been a great success and I truely wish I could
have been there. NYC hasn’t looked this good until you
moved in. Keep up the passion and Best of Luck !!
Tom
Hello Jason,
Since you worked with Fi as a Business Director, I need help some tips on Directing Business. Can I contact you through via MSN, Yahoo or Skype?
@Mike: Thank you, I really appreciate it.
@Tom: Awesome, thank you…
@Ali: I fired you an email, happy to help.
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[...] East Side artist Borbay has painted edgy portraits and famed locations around the world, including The [...]
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[...] East Side artist Borbay has painted edgy portraits and famed locations around the world, including The Guggenheim, TriBeCa [...]
Borbay–
I wish you and Ari much success in Las Vegas. Many thanks for producing a work, while in Vegas, that will be auctioned at the Broadway Cares/Equity AIDs fundraiser. You have a heart of gold, reaching out to others in need, with your art.
Sending you my best regards from Northern California where I am producing a new body of art work.
Brendan Ben Feeney at Brendanbenfeeney.com
LOVE you work, I just started painting about 2 years ago after breaking my neck and it went undignosed.I love it ! Love your Vegas Paintings, my dad lives in Vegas!
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we love your work man. rock on and we will swing back by occasionally
Appreciate it, please do.
Hi Borbay, you might be interested in this…
best wishes,
Jan O’Highway
2nd Global Conference
Celebrity
Sunday 10th March â•„ Tuesday 12th March 2013
Lisbon, Portugal
Call For Presentations:
‘To be known for your personality actually proves you a celebrity. Thus a synonym for “celebrity” is “personality”‘
(Boorstin, ‘From Hero to Celebrity’, 83)
The dream to be famous is as old as humanity itself. Celebrities are born every day and they often disappear after their Warholian fifteen minutes. Tina Turner was mistaken, singing that ‘we don’t need another hero’ â•„ ours is a hero-worshipping culture. One can look at celebrities as an extension of societies’ dreams of heroes and the embodiments of the Zeitgeist of a given era. And more often than not, it seems that each century has the celebrities it deserves. Among the star-wannabies and individuals known for being known, there are celebrities with whom we seem to connect in a way that transcends any other relationship pattern. They inspire, we aspire, and the processes of spectatorship and consumption allow for a merging of our self with the phantasmagorical ideal some cultural icons represent.
Celebrity culture itself has long ceased to be of interest only to tabloids and merchandisers and the people that consume them. Its analysis permeates all disciplines of study, making celebrity a multifaceted concept. Academics have continually called for a broader programme of celebrity studies; anthropologists have been identifying connections between celebrity status and religion (shamanism; idolatry; reliquaries); psychologists have been discussing the consequences of ‘celebrity worship’ and warning about the fate of those who rose to questionable fame within a fortnight; sociologists have been describing new ways of representing, producing and, most importantly, consuming celebrity; more recently, economists have pointed to the entertainment sector to find areas which have not been drastically touched by recession.
This call for presentations, papers and performances addresses a serious, interdisciplinary and multicultural analysis of the phenomenon of celebrity. We encourage both an in-depth criticism of the state of contemporary culture as well as a legitimate recognition of celebrities’ cultural value. Scholars, artists, writers, media representatives, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, and medical and law specialists are invited to send papers, reports, research studies, work-in-progress, works of art, workshops and pre-formed panels are invited on issues related to the following themes:
- Definitions of celebrity-hood, stardom, fame, iconicity, charisma, uniqueness/singularity, mass culture/pop-culture, popularity, across cultures
- The history of celebrity: the idols in the past and now
- From zero to hero: ‘ordinary celebrities’
- The modern celebrity culture: its status, benefits, etc.
- Ideological conditions of celebrity culture
- Celebrities as commodities
- Representation of celebrities; ╢celebrificationâ•˙ processes; the making of the ‘star’
- Celebrity and identity formation; authenticity; national identity;
- Celebrities: empowerment or objectification; self-fashioning (public vs private self)
- Celebrities and the discourse on the body
- Celebrities and fashion
- Celebrity culture and the audience (i.e. fandom; celebrity worship; stalking; role models; franchising)
- Good and bad PR
- Celebrities as cultural fabrications
- Celebrity and power; political function of celebrity status
- Politics and celebrities; celebrities in politics; politicisation of celebrity
- Mass media and the formation of celebrity culture
- Rhetoric of fame
- Celebrity in the media: news, shows, tabloids
- Celebrity and the law, accountability, morality, crime, transgressions
- Celebrity status and gender
- Notorious celebrity/fame: The anti-heroes and anti-stars; Ethics of fame
- Celebrities and their personnel
- Child celebrities: Too young for fame?
- Celebrity status as a burden; The weight of stardom
- Forgotten celebrities: What happens when fame disappears? Celebrities and ageing; Posthumous fame
- Unwanted fame
- Intercultural perspective on celebrity: i.e. Bollywood vs Hollywood
- (Post)colonialism and celebrity
- Celebrity as ‘Other’
- (Auto)biographies of/by stars and idols: (self-)representation, truth/biofiction
- Celebrity as educators; their positive impact; celebrities and humanitarian actions; awareness-raising
- Celebrity confessional literature; Self-help books by celebrities
- Teaching about celebrity culture
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals.
What to Send
Papers will also be considered on any related theme. 300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 12th October 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper of no more than 3000 words should be submitted by Friday 18th January 2013. Abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word, WordPerfect, or RTF formats with the following information and in this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: Celebrity 2 Abstract Submission.
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs
Katarzyna Bronk: bbronkk@gmail.com
Dr Rob Fisher: celeb2@inter-disciplinary.net
The conference is part of the Critical Issues series of research projects. The aim of the conference is to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting.
For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/critical-issues/ethos/celebrity-exploring-critical-issues/call-for-papers/
Hi Jan, thank you for sharing, this is quite interesting.
Hi
My students (9 and 10 years old want to know how old you are. Thanks for your portraits ,they love !
Hi Cecile, I’ll send you an email in case you don’t see this comment, but I’ll be 32 tomorrow 9/8/2012. Thank you for checking in, I appreciate it! If you have any questions about art in general, don’t hesitate to reach out.
[...] homeAbout [...]
[...] Dubbed a re-inventor of collage, the Big Kahuna, profiled on the BBC and featured by Forbes, Borbay is a professional artist residing in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. This holiday season, you [...]
[...] About [...]
[...] YORK, NY - World renowned collage artistBorbay will unveil his Kick Ass Actors in Kick Ass Roles portrait series on Wednesday, January 16, [...]