Shepard Fairey
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Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina) is a contemporary graphic designer/illustrator. He usually goes under his middle and last name, Shepard Fairey. He is most noted for being the artist who, while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1989, created the "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, which has evolved into the "Obey Giant" campaign, and can now be seen all over the world. The campaign has become, in Fairey's words, an "experiment in phenomenology."
Fairey has cultivated an aesthetic of Western currency, using moire patterns and large portraits of famous figures like Richard Nixon. A series of works contains the line, "This is your God," referring to money. Fairey frequently uses wheatpaste to affix his large, propaganda-like posters to billboards, and his followers do the same to buildings.
Fairey graduated from Wando High School in 1988. He graduated from RISD in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in Illustration, and currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Using the slogan "The Medium is the Message" borrowed from Marshall McLuhan, Fairey has become one of the most well-known artists of the early 2000s. Originally partners in the BLK/MRKT graphic design firm with fellow designer and artist Dave Kinsey, Fairey split away in 2003 to found the design firm Studio Number One.
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. 2005 saw Fairey and DJ Shadow collaborating on a box set. It included t-shirts, stickers, prints, and a mix CD by Shadow. In 2005 he also was a resident artist at Honolulu's The Contemporary Museum, as well as designing the poster art for the feature film Walk the Line. In 2006, Fairey contributed eight vinyl etchings to a limited-edition series of 12" singles by alternative rock icons Mission of Burma, and has also produced work for Interpol and the Black Eyed Peas.
His book, "Supply and Demand. The Art of Shepard Fairey" was released in July 2006.
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[edit] Influences
Shepard's work is influenced by artists such as Andy Warhol, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Barbara Kruger, Robbie Conal, Ron English and Diego Rivera. His "Obey" Campaign draws from the John Carpenter movie "They Live" which starred Rowdy Roddy Piper, taking a number of slogans, including the "Obey" slogan, as well as the "This is Your God" slogan.[1]
[edit] Criticism
Artist Erik Brunetti (DEN ONE) of the clothing label FUCT claims that Shepard Fairey has plagiarized work from him and other artists. In the summer of 2006 Brunetti introduced the "LOVE AWARENESS PROGRAM" to back up this claim. [2]
Burnetti has also criticized Fairey for using an image of Chairman Mao portraying him in a positive light (FUCT clothing had previously used Mao as a symbol of evil on a T shirt they produced in 1993). Burnetti: "how can [Fairey] dis-like George Bush but portray mao tesung as a hero? They are both murders as far as I am concerned."
[edit] Appearances in other media
- The artwork for Flogging Molly's CD/DVD Whiskey on a Sunday (released July 25, 2006) was done by Shepard Fairey.
- The artwork for Black Eyed Peas's CD's Elephunk (released June 24, 2003) and Monkey Business (released May 27, 2005) was done by Shepard Fairey.
- Shepard created the movie poster for the Johnny Cash bio-pic, Walk the Line.
- Shepard was on G4TechTv's "Icons" tv show
- The insert to the Dropping Food on Their Heads Is Not Enough: Benefit for RAWA (2002) features artwork which was donated by Shepard Fairey for the fundraiser compilation.
- Shepard also designed the logo for the Los Angeles radio station Indie 103.1.
- Shepard created the album cover for 311 album, Don't Tread On Me.
- The artwork for the Less Than Jake song "The Upwards War and the Down Turned Cycle" of their album Anthem.
- Shepard has worked with Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. He designed limited series of 12 Stratocaster and 13 Telecaster. No two of them are alike.
- He has also designed four different Squier Guitars, two Stratocasters and two Telecasters. They are not in a limited run.
[edit] See also
- street pop (art movement)
- street art
