Masthay had been in the jam band scene since the early 90s when he started following the Grateful Dead in 1992. “It really clicked for me back in the late 90s, 99 or so, seeing one of Jim Pollock’s plays on a Phish show and being like, ‘Wow, that’s a real impression. My parents have little drawings I did in kindergarten and stuff like that,” Masthay said. Graduating from Hartford Art School in 1997 with a degree in printmaking, it wasn’t until 2001 that Masthay set up his own typography studio and began testing the waters of the concert poster scene.
There, Masthay will sell new artwork, customize prints and give demonstrations on the way his printing press works. REVERB.įor Masthay, seeing Weir perform charity guitar with his design on their last show at Citi Field in New York was “surreal to say the least.”įans will have the chance to view Masthay’s artwork during an open house at his West Hartford studio on November 5 – the first since 2019. Plus, a one-of-a-kind guitar designed by Masthay and performed live by Bob Weir of Dead & Company on its last release fetched $300,000 at a charity auction, with proceeds going to nonprofit HeadCount and the environmental organization. He’s worked with some of the biggest bands on tour, including Black Sabbath, Grateful Dead, Foo Fighters and Dead & Company, for whom he recently produced 2022 tour posters. Masthay is a lifelong Connecticut resident who operates out of his workshop in West Hartford called “The Furnace”. Although Kelley has since passed away, one concert poster artist from Connecticut keeps alive the ingenuity of New England-raised concert artists: AJ Masthay. Kelley’s artistic influence extended to a whole legion of legendary modern concert poster designers, including Emek Golan and Chuck Sperry.
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