Shepard Fairey

Do you recognize this image? Perhaps you've seen it on stickers and stencils around a city near you:
Don't recognize it? Well perhaps you recognize this:
Both of these works are the art of Shepard Fairey, one of the most successful "street artists" of our time. His stencil of OBama (done while he was campaigning to be the democratic presidential candidate) has become an iconic piece of work.

For the music fans out there, you might also recognize his art work from Led Zepplin's The Mothership.

This weekend I went with Chrissy and Pete to see the ICA's exhibit on Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand. It was a show I was looking forward to seeing, and left having really, really enjoyed the work, with the urge to read and watch everything I could on him.

This has left my head spinning as I don't know where to start with what I want to write. So I think a list of general thoughts will be best:

*His early work of Andre the Giant stickers posted around Providence started out as a joke of sorts. He was teaching his friend how to make stencils but when people started to recognize his stickers and make parodies, he realized the impact his street art could have.

*He prefers to do street art/illegal street art because it bypasses the bureaucratic red tape and brings his art and message directly to "the people."

*He has great admiration for music artists. He lists punk and musical acts (the Sex Pistols, Black Flag, Public Enemy) as his influences over other visual artists. He said art shows don't move a stadium of people like music can.

*A lot of his work has an anti-war, anti-authority and anti-capitalism theme. I think it's interesting how he incorporates images of woman, children and flowers with the harsh war symbols of bombs, grenades and guns.

*He doesn't list Warhol as an inspiration but there are definite parallels of how Warhol and Fairey appropriate popular (pop) images into their work. Fairey has a series that works his signature Andre the Giant into famous Warhol's like Marilyn Monroe and the Campell's soup series.

*I'm always drawn to graphic art. I like how Fairey makes an impact by making images and ideas into clear and concise, graphic works of art.

I definitely want to write more about just his music art work. Another post for another day. Also, I would like to try and visit his work that is around Boston.

You should check out the show! It's at the ICA until August. Until then, check out this interview with Fairey: