Shepard Fairey
Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970) is a contemporary artist, graphic designer, and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. Shepard Fairey was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina. His third solo show with the gallery featured one hundred and fifty works, including the largest collection of canvases pieces in one show that he s done. Fairey was arrested on February 7, 2009, on his way to the premiere of his show at the Institute of Contemporary Art His arrest was announced to party goers by longtime friend Z-Trip who had been performing at the ICA premiere at Shepard Fairey s request. On April 27, 2009, Fairey put three signed copies of his Obama inauguration posters up on eBay, with the proceeds of the auction going to the One Love For Chi foundation, founded by the family of Deftones bassist Chi Cheng following a car accident in November 2008 that nearly claimed Cheng s life. Lance Armstrong will ride a Trek Madone styled by Fairey in the Giro d Italia, which begins May 9, in Venice, Italy.His father is a physician. The campaign openly embraced the revised poster along with two additional Fairey posters that featured the words CHANGE and VOTE . Fairey distributed 300,000 stickers and 500,000 posters during the campaign, In February 2008, Fairey received a letter of thanks from Obama for his contribution to the campaign.
Sherwin implied that O Shea s critique of Vallen was selective because key negative facts about Fairey s history were left out in the article. Bloggers have criticized Fairey for accepting commissions from corporations such as Saks Fifth Avenue, for which his design agency produced illustrations inspired by Constructivism and Alexander Rodchenko. Shepard Fairey has made two artworks that have literally changed the world — or at least, substantially affected public discourse, writes Artnet Magazine associate editor Ben Davis. Be the Revolution kicked off with a night of performances featuring Z-Trip, Ozomatli and David J at the Avalon in Hollywood.
Fairey also designed posters for the British goth band Bauhaus. In September 2008, Shepard opened his solo show titled Duality of Humanity at The Shooting Gallery in San Francisco. In 2008, Philosophy of Obey (Obey Giant): The Formative Years (1989 - 2008), edited by Sarah Jaye Williams, was published by Nerve Books UK, and praised by Fairey. In June 2007, Fairey opened his one man show entitled E Pluribus Venom , at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery.
Fairey created a series of posters supporting Barack Obama s 2008 candidacy for President of the United States, including the iconic HOPE portrait. Mark Vallen, Lincoln Cushing, Josh MacPhee, and Favianna Rodriguez have documented how Fairey has appropriated work by Koloman Moser, Ralph Chaplin, Pirkle Jones, Rupert Garcia, Rene Mederos, Félix Beltrán, Gary Grimshaw, among others. Art critic Brian Sherwin lashed out at O’Shea’s criticism of Mark Vallen by saying that O’Shea’s SUPERTOUCH article was nothing more than “damage control”.
Sherwin questioned the intentions of O’Shea’s support for Fairey. from 1997-2003, which specialised in guerilla marketing, and the development of high-impact marketing campaigns .
(for whom Fairey designed the red dinosaur version of mozilla.org s logo and mascot). In 2003 he founded the Studio Number One design agency with his wife Amanda Fairey., Flogging Molly s CD/DVD Whiskey on a Sunday, the Led Zeppelin compilation Mothership and Anthrax s The Greater Of Two Evils. In 2004, Fairey joined artists Robbie Conal and Mear One to create a series of anti-war, anti-Bush posters for a street art campaign called Be the Revolution for the art collective Post Gen . Genocchio went on to say that it was tempting to see Fairey’s art as just another luxury commodity. The director of Ad Hoc Art, Andrew Michael Ford, has stated for the New York Times that Fairey‘s practice does not “match up“ in the minds of people who view his work.
The letter stated: On November 5, 2008, Chicago posted banners throughout the downtown business district featuring Fairey s Obama HOPE portrait. Fairey created a similar but new image of Barack Obama for Time Magazine, which was used as the cover art for the 2008 Person of the Year issue. In 2006, Fairey contributed eight vinyl etchings to a limited-edition series of 12 singles by post-punk band Mission of Burma, and has also done work for the musical group Interpol. The book Supply and Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey was released in 2006.
Sherwin wrote that O’Shea once served as editor in chief for Juxtapoz and has worked as a creative director hired by corporate art collections as a corporate liaison for acquisitions. The film premiered in the 1995 New York Underground Film Festival, and went on to play at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival.
It has been seen in more than 70 festivals and museums internationally. Fairey was a founding partner, along with Dave Kinsey and Phillip DeWolff, of the design studio BLK/MRKT Inc. Sherwin suggests that O’Shea has a “vested” interest in making sure that Fairey is viewed positively by the public since he has curated art exhibits involving Fairey and has wrote extensively about Fairey.
O Donoghue later posted an article, titled Shepard Fairey’s Image Problem , on several independent media sites. Erick Lyle has accused Fairey of cynically turning graffiti culture into a self-promoting ad campaign. In a review of E Pluribus Venom at Jonathan LeVine Gallery for The New York Times art critic Benjamin Genocchio stated that Fairey’s art comes off as “generic” despite the range of mediums and styles used by the artist. Sherwin concluded that the public will “question the artist who says to question everything” regardless of O’Shea’s Mark Vallen “damage control” on SUPERTOUCH.
In his criticism of Fairey’s art he went on to suggest that Fairey is “ripe” for criticism because he profits off of politically and socially charged works. In January 2009, the HOPE portrait was acquired by the US National Portrait Gallery and made part of its permanent collection. Fairey has come under criticism for appropriating others artwork into his own while failing to provide attribution for the work used. Fairey has threatened to sue artists for the same technique.
Ford suggests that some people will view Fairey’s work as “very commercial”. Sherwin pointed out that Fairey is a SUPERTOUCH author as well as a business associate of O’Shea.
Shepard Fairey has also stated in an interview that part of his work is inspired by other street artists. After graduation, he founded a small printing business in Providence, Rhode Island, called Alternate Graphics, specializing in t-shirt and sticker silkscreens, which afforded Fairey the ability to continue pursuing his own artwork. Fairey also co-founded Swindle Magazine along with Roger Gastman. In 2005 he collaborated for a second time with Z-Trip on a limited edition 12-inch featuring Chuck D entitled Shock and Awe. In 2005 Fairey also collaborated with DJ Shadow on a box set, with t-shirts, stickers, prints, and a mix CD by Shadow.
Fairey became interested with art in 1984, when he started to place his drawings on skateboards and T-shirts. In 1992, Fairey graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration. In addition to his successful graphic design career, Fairey also DJ s at many clubs under the name DJ Diabetic and Emcee Insulin, as he has diabetes. Fairey sits on the advisory board of Reaching to Embrace the Arts, a not-for-profit organization that provides art supplies to disadvantaged schools and students. Fairey created the André the Giant Has a Posse sticker campaign in 1989, while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He also uses the slogan The Medium is the Message borrowed from Marshall McLuhan.
Ford stated that despite his criticism he is a fan of Fairey work. That’s two more than most artists can claim. Activism · Aerosol paint · Culture jamming · Direct action · Graffiti (terminology · use theory) · Guerrilla art · Hip hop culture · Installation art · Murals · Propaganda · Screenprinting · Spray paint art · Stencil graffiti · Sticker art · Subway Art · Reverse graffiti · Yarn bombing Street · Stencil · Wheatpaste · Graffiti · Poster Montana Colors Built environment · MTA · Public art · Public space · Psychogeography · Rapid transit · Street party · Urban planning · Vandalism .
The following spring, Stickler completed a short documentary film about Shepard and his work, titled Andre the Giant has a Posse . While residing in Providence in 1994, Fairey met American filmmaker Helen Stickler, who had also attended RISD and graduated with a film degree.
In 2005 also, he was a resident artist at the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu. The show made the arts section front page in the The New York Times. Fairey donated original cover art to the 2008 album Body of War: Songs That Inspired an Iraq War Veteran, produced for Iraq War documentary Body of War.
Proceeds from the album benefit non-profit organization Iraq Veterans Against the War. In 2008 Fairey teamed up again with Z-Trip to do a series of shows in support of then presidential candidate Barack Obama entitled Party For Change. Austin, Texas graphic designer Baxter Orr did his own take on Fairey s work in a piece called Protect, with the iconic Obey Giant face covered by a SARS respiratory mask. In 2009, it was revealed that the HOPE poster was based on a copyrighted photograph taken in April 2006 by Mannie Garcia while on assignment for the Associated Press (AP), which wants credit and compensation for the work. Fairey was questioned about criticism surrounding his use of images from social movements, specifically images created by artists of color, in an interview with Liam O Donoghue for Mother Jones.
