Shepard Fairey

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Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is an American contemporary street artist, graphic designer, activist, illustrator, and founder of OBEY Clothing who emerged from the skateboarding scene.

He first became known for his "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" (...OBEY...) sticker campaign while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).He became widely known during the 2008 U.S. presidential election for his Barack Obama "Hope" poster.

The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston has described him as one of the best known and most influential street artists.

His work is included in the collections at The Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Early life

Shepard Fairey was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. His father, Strait Fairey, is a doctor, and his mother, Charlotte, a realtor. He attended Porter Gaud High School in Charleston, South Carolina, and transferred to high school at Idyllwild Arts Academy in Idyllwild, California, from which he graduated in 1988.

Fairey became involved with art in 1984, when he started to place his drawings on skateboards and T-shirts. He moved to Rhode Island in 1988 to attend the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). In 1992, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Illustration from the RISD.

Personal life

Fairey lives in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles with his wife Amanda and daughters Vivienne and Madeline. In addition to his successful graphic design career, Fairey also DJs at many clubs under the names DJ Diabetic and Emcee Insulin, as he has Type 1 diabetes.

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Career

Fairey began designing the "André the Giant Has a Pledge" sticker campaign in 1989, while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Fairey's original plans were later developed into the "Obey Giant" campaign, which has developed via a worldwide network of collaborators. Fairey intended the Obey Giant to ignite curiosity and inspire people to consider their relationship with their environment. "The sticker has no meaning," the Obey Giant website says, "The sticker exists only to make people react, to think, and search for meaning in the sticker." Many that are familiar with the sticker find amusement and joy in it, while those who try to grasp its meaning only burden themselves and can condemn the work as an act of vandalism from an evil, underground sect.

Fairey claims he intended the sticker campaign to reach out among his classmates and college colleagues.

He wrote a manifesto in 1990-1991 and has since posted on his website based on Heidegger's phenomenology theory. His "Obey" campaign is based on John Carpenter's film They Live, which starred pro wrestler Roddy Piper, and has received a variety of its slogans, including the "Obey" slogan as well as the "This is Your God" slogan. Fairey has spun off the OBEY clothing line from the initial sticker campaign. Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium Is the Message" is also used. In an interview, Shepard Fairey said that a part of his work is influenced by other street artists.

Fairey was able to continue pursuing his own artwork after graduation. Alternate Graphics, specializing in T-shirt and sticker silkscreens, founded a small printing shop in Providence, Rhode Island, which allowed him to continue practicing his own artwork. Fairey lived in Providence in 1994, and she received a film degree from RISD. Stickler produced "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" in the spring following. The film premiered in the 1995 New York Underground Film Festival and then went on to attend the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. It has been seen in more than 70 festivals and museums around the world.

Fairey was a founding partner, alongside Dave Kinsey and Phillip DeWolff of BLK/MRKT Inc. from 1997 to 2003, which specialized in guerrilla marketing and "the creation of high-impact marketing campaigns." Pepsi, Hasbro, and Netscape were among the clients (fairey created the red dinosaur version of mozilla.org's logo and mascot for Fairey).

He and his wife Amanda Fairey formed Studio Number One design firm in 2003. The Monkey Business Magazine and the advertisement for the film Walk the Line were produced by the agency. Fairey has also designed the covers for The Smashing Pumpkins' album Zeitgeist, Flogging Molly's CD/DVD Whiskey, and Anthrax's The Greater Of Two Evils. Fairey, Banksy, Dmote, and others created work at a warehouse exhibition in Alexandria, Sydney, in 2003. Around 1,500 people attended.

Fairey joined artists Robbie Conal and Mear One in 2004 to produce a series of "anti-war, anti-Bush" posters for the art group "Be the Revolution." At the Avalon in Hollywood, "Be the Revolution" opened with a night of performances starring Z-Trip, Ozomatli, and David J. Fairey and Roger Gastman co-founded Swindle Magazine together with Roger Gastman.

In 2005, he collaborated with Z-Trip on a limited edition 12-inch with Chuck D's "Shock and Awe" in honor of his second collaboration. Fairey also worked with DJ Shadow on a box set in 2005, which included T-shirts, stickers, prints, and Shadow's mixed CD. He exhibited in Paris at the Magda Danysz Gallery in 2005 and was a resident artist at the Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House (formerly known as The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu). Fairey contributed to the posters, cover art, and graphics for Walk The Line the Johnny Cash biopic in 2005. Fairey contributed eight vinyl etchings to a limited-edition series of 12" singles by post-punk band Mission of Burma in 2006, as well as Interpol.

Fairey joined NYC-based Ad Agency Project 2050 as the founding Creative Director in 2006, and was featured on the front page of Advertising Age magazine. Shepard created innovative pieces for Virgin Mega Store and Boost Mobile during Project 2050. The book Supply and Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey was published in 2006. Philosophy of Obey (Obey Giant): The Formative Years (1989–2008), edited by Sarah Jaye Williams, was published by Nerve Books UK and lauded by Fairey in 2008.

Fairey's one-man show "E Pluribus Venom" at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in June 2007. The exhibit on the front page of the New York Times in the arts section.

Fairey contributed original cover art to the 2008 album Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran, which was released as part of the Iraq War documentary Body of War. Proceeds from the album's non-profit group Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Fairey partnered with Z-Trip in 2008 to produce a series of shows in favor of then-president Barack Obama, dubbed Team For Change. Fairey has also created posters for Bauhaus, the British goth band.

Shepard's solo exhibition "Duality of Humanity" at the White Walls & Shooting Gallery in San Francisco in September 2008. One hundred and fifty works on display, including the most extensive collection of canvases pieces in one show that he's produced, was on display at the gallery.

Fairey was arrested on February 7, 2009, on his way to the premiere of his show at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Massachusetts, on two outstanding warrants relating to graffiti. According to a Boston Police Department spokesperson, he was charged with assault after graffitiing two Boston area locations. Z-Trip, a longtime friend who had been performing at the ICA premiere at Shepard Fairey's request, was informed of his detention by party goers.

Fairey published three signed copies of his Obama inauguration posters on eBay on April 27, 2009, with the proceeds of the auction going to the One Love For Chi foundation, founded by Deftones bassist Chi Cheng's family in November 2008, which nearly ended Cheng's life.

During the summer of 2009, Fairey's first art museum exhibition, titled Supply & Demand (as was his previous book), was held in Boston at the Institute of Contemporary Art. More than 250 works on view included screen prints, stencils, stickers, rubylith drawings, collages, and paintings on wood, metal, and canvas. Fairey created public art works around Boston as a complement to the ICA show. "The true message behind the majority of my art is to question everything," the artist says.

Fairey commissioned Fairey to produce its cover in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and other global social movements. This was Fairey's second Person of the Year cover for Time, his first being of Barack Obama in 2008.

Shepard Fairey made a cameo appearance on Portlandia in January 2015. Fairey was arrested and arrested at Los Angeles International Airport after going through customs on a warrant for allegedly vandalizing 14 buildings in Detroit in July 2015. He then turned himself in to Detroit Police.

The Jacob Lewis Gallery in New York City opened "On Our Hands," Shepard Fairey's first solo opening in the city in five years, on September 17, 2015. The paintings portray current topics facing our global community: political imperialism, environmental apathy, and abuse of power. Fairey's latest monograph Covert to Overt, published by Rizzoli, corresponds with the exhibition.

The beauty of Fremont's East District was shown by the Las Vegas Mural Project in 2016.

Fairey produced a series of posters promoting Barack Obama's campaign as President of the United States in 2008, including the iconic "HOPE" portrait. The poster, according to New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl, is "the most enthralling American political illustration since 'Uncle Sam Wants You.' Fairey also created a special version for Rock the Vote. Since the Hope poster had been "permitted illegally" and independently by the street artist, the Obama campaign denied to have any direct association with it. Fairey has said in interviews that he was in constant contact with campaign leaders during the period immediately following the poster's publication, although the campaign explicitly denied any involvement in the design or popularization of the advertisement. Fairey has stated that the initial version had the word "PROGRESS" rather than "HOPE" instead of the word "HOPE" in the text. The campaign requested that a new version be released (and legally disseminate) within weeks of its launch, keeping the iconic image of Obama's face but also labeling it with the word "HOPE." The campaign welcomed the updated poster as well as two additional Fairey posters that featured the words "CHANGE" and "VOTE."

During the campaign, Fairey sold 300,000 stickers and 500,000 posters, all funding his grassroots campaigneering efforts by supporting his election campaign by way of poster and fine art sales. Fairey said in December 2009, "I just put all the money into making more stuff," said Fairey.

The letter stated:

Fairey's Obama "HOPE" portrait was featured on banners around Chicago's downtown business district on November 5, 2008.

Fairey created a similar but new photograph of Barack Obama for Time magazine, which was used as the cover art for the 2008 Person of the Year series. On the front of Esquire Magazine's February 2009 issue, the original "HOPE" portrait was featured, this time with a caption that reads, "WHAT NOW?" Fairey's clout in the artist's being named Person of the Year for 2008 by GQ.

The "HOPE" portrait was acquired by the United States National Portrait Gallery in January 2009 and displayed as part of the national Portrait Gallery's permanent collection. On January 17, 2009, it was unveiled and on display.

Photographer and blogger Tom Gralish discovered that the poster was based on an Associated Press photograph by freelance photographer Mannie Garcia. Fairey filed a federal lawsuit against the Associated Press later requesting a declaratory decision that his use of the AP photograph was covered by the fair use policy. Fairey later confessed that he based the poster on the AP photograph and that he had manufactured and destroyed evidence to mask the fact. A judge ordered a deal, predicting that the AP would prevail in the case. In January 2011, the AP and Shepard Fairey decided to go out of court.

Fairey's Obama portrait in 2009 was included in the book Art For Obama: Manifestation Hope and the Campaign for Change, which Fairey also edited.

Stephen Colbert asked Fairey how he felt about doing the "HOPE" portrait of Obama and how "that hope was working out for him now," he said on December 8, 2010. Fairey responded: "You know, I'm proud of it as a piece of grassroots activism, but I'll leave it at that."

In an interview with Esquire in 2015 Fairey, Obama did not live up to his hopes, "not even close." "Obama has had a rough time, but there have been a few things that he has compromised on that I may never have predicted," he continued. I mean, drones and domestic surveillance are the last things I would have imagined [he'd encourage].

Fairey produced a mutt version of the red, white, and blue poster, donating it to promote pet adoptions from an image of a rescued shaggy dog by photographer Clay Myers. Adopt-A-Pet.com, a non-profit group that helps shelters, humane societies, and rescue groups advertise their homeless pets to potential adopters, had four hundred limited edition prints available. The poster, which was also available as a free download, was included on the front of Dog's Life magazine in spring 2009.

Fairey created a 9-story mural in 2014 in honor of Nelson Mandela and the 25th anniversary of the Purple Rain Protest. On Juta Street in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, overlooking the Nelson Mandela Bridge, it is a public art. Fairey's first work in Africa is seen by some as a sequel to the iconic Barack Obama HOPE poster.

"It is a big exclamation point downtown," said Patrick Gaspard, the American Ambassador to South Africa, which helps us recall the entire liberation war and Nelson Mandela's remarkably positive transition to independence.

Honest Gil Fulbright, a satirical Kentucky politician, was portrayed in Fairey's latest iteration of the Obama HOPE poster. On the poster, Frank L. Ridley, the actor who plays Fulbright, is featured, as well as the phrase "SOLD" which refers to Fulbright's "truest" political message: "I'm only in this stuff for the money, but at least I'm honest about it."

Fairey produced a poster remembrance of the victims of the Paris attacks in November 2015, surrounded by the national motto Liberté, égalité, fraternity. This design was painted as a mural on 186 rue Nationale, Paris, in June 2016. Fairey gave Emmanuel Macron a poster that had been hanging in his office after taking over France's presidency in the night of December 13th. The motto was stripped out with white paint and replaced by the word Marianne pleure (Marianne cries), and red tears were added to Marianne's face. Fairey responded to the event by saying he supports those who protest injustice and that he fully understands the cause.

This series was created as a protest against Donald Trump's racial pronouncements and policies during his 2016 presidential campaign. This campaign aims to foster gender equality and combat racial discrimination against minorities. Many people are taken to believe in their common humanity through this work. Native Americans, African Americans, Muslims, and Latinas all want to protect their dignity. The work came from a line in the Constitution and includes portraits of Native Americans, African Americans, Muslims, and Latinas.

This work is a mural for Urban Nation in Berlin, Germany. Fairey's street art was created in 2014. Fairey's political support for anti-war movements and peace made the project a slogan for street artists and showed Fairey's political support for anti-war movements and peace. The work was created with spray paint and features many of Fairey's motifs and symbols from other works. The black and red cartoon-like style is reminiscent of roses, which also includes repetition of letters such as roses.

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