Born 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina, Fairey now lives and works in Los Angeles.

Shepard Fairey is one of the most influential street artists of our time. His work has been used in screen-prints, stencils, stickers, masking film illustrations, wheat paste, collages, sculptures, posters, paintings, and murals. He became interested in art as a young man when he started to use his drawings on T-shirts and skateboards. In the early 1990s, he rose to prominence when he created the Andre the Giant has a Posse sticker that transformed into the OBEY GIANT art campaign.

Fairey’s iconic “HOPE” poster of President Barack Obama was adopted as the official emblem associated with the presidential campaign and can be found in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait gallery. It encapsulates a number of recurring concerns in the artist’s work, including propaganda, portraiture, and political power.

Obey Giant profiles the life and work of artist Shepard Fairey. We follow his roots through punk rock and skateboarding to his creation of the iconic Obama HOPE poster, and the controversy that surrounds it.

Shepard talks about the influence graffiti, skateboarding and punk rock had on his life and the ways it shaped his art career. Key moments such as a school trip to NY and the melding of styles by brands such as Shut Skateboards allowed him to develop his techniques.

Works appear in

MOMA
The Victoria and Albert Museum
The Boston ICA, and many others.

Solo exhibitions include

Capsule, Birmingham, England (2000)
Kantor Gallery, New York, NY (2003)
OXOP Gallery in Minneapolis, Minnesota (2006)
Merry Karnosky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2007)
ICA Boston, MA (2009)
Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, OH (2010)
Stolenspace Gallery, London (2012)

Fairey received the Brit Insurance Design of the Year Award in 2009 for his “Hope” poster and he was commissioned by Time Magazine in 2011 to design a cover for the magazine.