User:Swordswfriends/sandbox/Matthew Hoffman

Matthew Hoffman (Born July 25, 1979) is an American public artist and designer based in Chicago. He is known for You Are Beautiful, an art project that ranges from stickers to large-scale public sculptures.

Early life
Matthew Hoffman was born in Rockford, Ohio. In 2001, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in graphic design from Ball State University.

You Are Beautiful
Hoffman refers to himself as the "custodian" of the You Are Beautiful Project, which began in 2002 as a street art sticker campaign with 100 stickers he distributed to friends, who placed them in public spaces around the world. "The original idea behind the project was just to create a simple, positive, affirming message – just to say 'you are beautiful, you're perfect as you are.' Like, everything's OK," Hoffman said in an interview for OWN's "Super Soul Sunday" series.

"I wanted to create the perfect positive message that you could share with everyone," he said in an interview. Initially he remained anonymous, referring to the project as "international collective."

Since inception, it is estimated that over 8.5 million stickers have been distributed in hundreds of languages. The stickers have been posted in locations around the world, on all seven continents.

In addition to stickers, Hoffman and collaborators have created both commissioned and noncommissioned murals and installations in a variety of mediums, including paint, plywood and mixed media. The message is painted at the top of the Rice Mill Lofts in New Orleans, Louisiana, In 2006, Hoffman collaborated with more than 100 local artists to create a temporary installation on the pedestrian pedway wall during construction at [ | Block 37].

There are more than 100 permanent You Are Beautiful public art pieces on display globally, located primarily in the United States. The greatest concentration of public works are in the Chicago area, such as a billboard-sized replica of a You Are Beautiful sticker erected on South Lake Shore Drive in the Oakland neighborhood of Chicago in 2015 after having appeared in an exhibition of street art at the Chicago Cultural Center, in the Andersonville neighborhood, and Elmhurst Art Museum. . In 2014, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum commissioned a series of billboards placed throughout Erie County featuring a version of the You Are Beautiful sticker design. In 2017, Hoffman launched a successful crowdfunding campaign to place a You Are Beautiful public sculpture in all 50 states.

In 2022, Hoffman was commissioned by shopping mall owner Brookfield Properties to conceive and produce the You Are Beautiful Experience, an interactive exhibit that toured the company's shopping centers in St. Louis, Missouri; Murray, Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada, Frisco, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia; Durham, North Carolina; and Norwalk, Connecticut.

Other works
Hoffman's work typically depicts words or phrases rendered in two- or three-dimensional text, often in a cursive font based on the artist's handwriting.

In 2015, @properties CEO Thad Wong commissioned Hoffman to paint a mural on real estate firm Chicago headquarters. The mural featured the word "love" in a cursive script based on Hoffman's handwriting. The design was turned into magnets and other promotional items for the company, and was incorporated into a new mural by artist Lefty Out There in 2021.

In 2016, Hoffman installed a piece titled May This Never End along the fence on the Rose Kennedy Greenway in Boston. The piece was recognized as one of the best public artworks of the year in the Americans for the Arts' Public Art Network Year in Review.

In 2019, the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo purchased a sculpture it had commissioned for its Momentum arts festival. The sculpture features the phrases "You Are Beautiful" on one side and "You Are Doing Great" on the other. After the festival it was moved to a permanent location in International Park in downtown Toledo.

In 2020, Hoffman was commissioned to create a series of sculptures featuring the phrase "We're all in this together," which were placed on 24 buildings in Chicago.

In 2018, Hoffman opened a studio and gallery in Chicago, where a wide range of You Are Beautiful products and other artworks are displayed.

Awards
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