The Story
It all started with a fare hike. In 2002, when the MTA announced a planned New York City subway fare increase from $1.50 to $2.00, Juan Carlos (aka “Carlos”) Pinto, a Brooklyn based Guatemalan-born artist, created a collage from cut up MetroCards featuring a portrait of John Lennon to express the sticker shock that many working class locals were facing. For more than two decades since then, Carlos has been using recycled MTA MetroCards to depict a variety of subjects ranging from portraits to animals and landscapes. He seeks to create art that merges personal, social, and environmental themes and inspires people to be more actively engaged in their communities.