In 2008, Shepard Fairey created Barack Obama's iconic "Hope" poster and wallpapered the streets of Providence with a design inspired by André the Giant that would become his trademark.
Fairey was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design, his work hung at the Smithsonian and MoMA, and in 2008 he created his iconic Hope poster with his brother-in-law, artist and illustrator John D'Agostino.
Who is Shepard Fairey?
Frank "Shepard Fairey", a well-known graphic artist, muralist and overall artist, is very well-known. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina on February 15, 1970. The artist graduated from Idyllwild Arts Academy, Palm Springs, California in 1988. In 1992, he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence.
When Raimondo asked him to help strengthen the spirit of a quarantined and struggling state, he responded with his own version of the "Hope" poster.
He supported the Occupy movement by altering Obama's portrait to directly challenge the president. Fairey stepped up his production, designing inflammatory and politically charged posters criticizing the status quo and corporate culture. Shepard is one of the most popular artists in today's art world and is building his own fan base faster than ever.
Why is Shepard Fairey controversial?
Fairey, best known for his work on the Occupy Wall Street posters, is also the founder of clothing brand OBEY and perhaps best known - as the designer of President Barack Obama's famous "I'm with you" poster. In 2010, he designed a poster to support artists for peace and justice at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
Using art to get people to think critically about the world around them has been a theme of Fairey's work since he began distributing the "Andre Giant has a Posse" stickers to grab people's attention and get them to ask questions. The stickers, which show a grainy image of wrestler Andre the Giant, were made with white text on a red background paired with his face and then distributed in cities around the world.
Shepard Fairey's ambiguous campaign resonated with the public and the press, shaping the perception of the game and the future of art in general, and Shepard himself as a whole. Since then he has gained popularity and created his own phenomenon with his work on the "Andre Giant has a Posse" stickers.
After discovering skateboarding and punk rock at the age of 14, he felt powerless as a young man and reached into his hand - painted acrylic paintings. From there, he continued to influence and influence the burgeoning skateboard and street art communities in the United States and Europe.
The most expensive work by Shepard Fairey to be auctioned at Heritage Auctions is a hand-painted acrylic collage by the artist that sold for $13,750 on April 10, 2017.
Fairey is the darling of the contemporary art world, with a natural "obedience" and an estimated net worth of $15 million, more than double the annual income of the average artist. His street art has led to him being arrested for vandalism And he was criticized for his habit of appropriating existing images for his designs.
In 2011, he partnered with Los Angeles-based graphic designer Shepard Fairey and designed a series of posters and stickers to show his support for Barack Obama, based on Obama's portrait. The posters, stickers and portraits were printed and tagged by ardent Obama supporters as part of his campaign for president of the United States.
He posted downloadable versions of the designs online, and others caught the attention of celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Sources: 2
As a longtime skateboarder, Shepard immersed himself slightly in the world of street art and began experimenting with stickers on stop signs and walls while still at school. After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (1992), he attended the University of California, San Diego's School of Art and Design.
Born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was born and raised as a doctor, Los Angeles-based street artist, graphic designer, entrepreneur and entrepreneur Shepard Fairey was an avid skateboarder and member of the San Diego Skateboard Club.
At the age of 18, he created his first major viral work, although the concept of the "viral" did not yet exist in relation to art at the time. The Hope poster hung on the wall of an apartment building in the city of San Francisco, California in the summer of 1992.
He graduated in 1988 and earned a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992 and a bachelor's degree in illustration in 1992. In 1990 he graduated from the College of Arts and Sciences at New York University in the United States of America (USA) with a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design.
He experimented with street art as a medium and launched his first sticker campaign in 1992 with a poster of the outstanding professional wrestler Andre the Giant entitled "I have a Posse."
He gained national attention and sold more than one million copies of the poster, as well as several other posters. Fairey found mainstream success and fame in the counterculture with the red - and - blue - "Hope" poster he had created on his own initiative.
SHEPARD FAIREY aka OBEY:
Cited Sources
- https://www.stencilrevolution.com/blogs/profiles/shepard-fairey 0
- https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/california/articles/shepard-fairey-the-artist-manufacturing-dissent/ 1
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/shepard-fairey-the-artist-behind-the-obama-portrait-45936012/ 2
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/02/23/hope-and-glory 3
- https://thepublicsradio.org/article/shepard-fairey-wants-to-change-your-mind-with-art 4
- https://blog.ha.com/2019/11/how-much-is-shepard-fairey-art-worth/ 5
- https://www.forbes.com/sites/julietremaine/2020/04/27/when-rhode-island-called-for-uplifting-public-art-during-quarantine-shepard-fairey-answered/ 6
- https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20191021/providence-welcomes-back-renowned-street-artist-shepard-fairey 7
- https://www.wbur.org/artery/2019/10/31/shepard-fairey-mural-providence 8
- https://www.britannica.com/biography/Shepard-Fairey 9