Shepard Fairey (born January 15, 1970, Charleston, South Carolina, USA) is an American muralist and graphic artist who began an advertising campaign in the late 1990s with a screen copy of the wrestler Andre the Giant.
Shepard Fairey is perhaps best known for her iconic 2008 “Hope” poster that depicts then-US presidential candidate Barack Obama. Shepard Fairey is one of the most influential street artists and illustrators of our time – working with a wide range of media – stencils, sculptures, stickers and paintings – which have changed the way people think about art and the cityscape.
The OBEY GIANT campaign began with an absurd sticker created while attending Rhode Island School of Design in 1989 and has since grown into a worldwide campaign for street art and an established visual art object. The campaign is rooted in the DIY punk rock and skateboarding counterculture, but also inspired by popular culture, commercial marketing and political messages. Rebel Music encompasses the entire spectrum of punk art, from Iranian metalheads to American environmental DJs.
Esquire met Fairey to talk about Rebel Music, his own business – he still produces posters, stencils, Andre the Giant OBEY stickers and 185-foot murals – and how the political world affecting artists young and old – after his Barack Obama poster ” Hope ” almost defined the 2008 elections – and whether anything is prepared for 2016.
In 1994, Helen Stickler produced the documentary Andre the Giant Has a Squad which is based on Faerie and the growing phenomena of her disruptive stickers and posters. The Hope poster was just one example of how fairy often used art to promote her strong beliefs. He protested the Iraq war, supported firearms control and environmental protection and designed the 2016 Democratic presidential campaign T-shirt for US Senator Bernie Sanders.
Some mixed media paintings use rich blues and golds rather than his early propaganda palette of reds and blacks and they feature stylized or idealized depictions of women – African American, Mexican, Asian American or Middle Eastern – that should hopefully bring a show-like feel to the home.
In Jonathan LeVine Gallery’s “New York Times” review “E Pluribus Venom”, art critic Benjamin Genocchio described Faerie’s art as “shared” despite the artist’s use of multiple media and styles. Frank Shepard Fairey is a contemporary American street artist, graphic designer, activist, illustrator and skateboard founder of OBEY Clothing.
Andre the Giant Has a Posse is one of the earliest and most important viral street art campaigns showcasing the skill and power of this new illicit medium of expression. I thought it was the artistic equivalent of most music that touched me because lyrically it was harsh.
