Shepard Fairey

Interpol NYC Calling - Shepard Fairey Obey Contemporary Print

2019

Mark Drew, Sunshine Plays a Major Part in the Daytime comes from a limited edition of 150. This contemporary print is inspired from Wu-Tang...

I Never Let A Statue Tell Me How Nice I Am comes from a limited edition of 120. This contemporary urban street art print is inspired from lyrics from A Tribe Called Quest...

Mark Drew, Boy I Tell You I Miss Her, comes from a limited edition of 150. This contemporary print is inspired from "I Used To Love H.E.R." by Common. Mark Drew has a unique style o...

Frank Shepard Fairey was born February 15, 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Fairey's adolescence was shaped by the influences of punk-rock and skateboarding. In his teens, he began creating his own bootlegged clothing and skateboard decals featuring bands and brands he liked. Fairey’s early bootlegs were created because his generally conservative parents would not purchase the clothing he wanted. In 1986, he stumbled upon the Andre the Giant image for which he has become famous for, in a local newspaper. The image was selected when Fairey demonstrated to a friend how to make a stencil; it was modified slightly to include the meaningless caption “Andre the Giant has a Posse” and made into a sticker. The sticker was reproduced en masse and began to appear around Charleston as it spread through the skateboarding community. While the sticker had no inherent meaning, the public response varied from disregard to curiosity to out-right fear. Civic groups editorialized and theorized that the Andre image was affiliated with everything from a band to a hate group. Nevertheless, the stickers were considered vandalism and in time, Fairey would face numerous charges for defacing public property. Fairey's record includes 15 arrests as of March 2009, for defacing property as a result of his so called bombing campaigns. Fairey affixed the stickers on municipal properties nearly everywhere he went, and the Andre sticker was being seen in Boston and New York City, soon others procured the image and were encouraged to spread the campaign worldwide in the form of stickers, stencils and wheat-paste posters. Following high school, Fairey was accepted to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where, with an interest in screen printing, he majored in illustration. In 1992, while still attending RISD, Fairey started Alternate Graphics, a mail order catalog business through which he could merchandise his own t-shirts, skateboards, posters and stickers. He also took small commercial illustration jobs to help supplement his income. Shortly thereafter, the Andre the Giant Has a Posse logo was shortened simply to Obey Giant. The Obey, for which Fairey has also become synonymous, is derived from the 1988 John Carpenter film They Live. In the film, aliens who appear as human, rule the governments and economies of the world while the humans are reduced to an unwitting, hypnotized slave-class. Themes from the film continue to appear in Fairey’s work. Over time, the Andre the Giant face was modified into a more simplified and streamlined appearance, reminiscent of Russian Constructivist/Rodchenko style Soviet propaganda posters of the 20th Century. In 1994, filmmaker Helen Stickler featured Fairey and his sticker phenomenon in her documentary: Andre the Giant has a Posse. The following year, Fairey started Subliminal Projects with the late Blaize Blouin, his friend and pro-skateboarder. Subliminal Projects created and released several Obey-Giant themed posters and skateboard decks. Fairey directed a short skateboarding film featuring some of his friends through Subliminal Projects and Alternate Graphics titled A.D.D.(Attention Deficit Disorder). In 1996, Fairey moved to San Diego, California to create Giant Distribution with partner Andy Howell. Later, with Howell, Phillip De Wolff, Dave Kinsey, he formed First Bureau of Imagery (FBI), a branding, marketing and design firm established to focus on the increasingly lucrative sports market. FBI was closed in 1999 and Fairey, along with De Wolff and Kinsey created BLK/MRKT, similar to FBI. At this time, Fairey met and began working with Amanda Alaya, whom he would later marry. BLK/MRKT moved to Los Angeles in 2001. Here, they could expand and were able to incorporate a small gallery. Fairey and Kinsey eventually bought out De Wolff’s share of the partnership and by then had set up offices in the Pellissier Building (home of the historic Wiltern Theater), in the Koreatown section of Downtown Los Angeles. In December 2001, Fairey and Alaya were married in Charleston, South Carolina, Amanda has occasionally been the model for Fairey's prints (see: Commanda, 2007). Additionally, Amanda Fairey works in the capacity as publicist, agent and representative of her husband. In 2003, Kinsey and Fairey split. Kinsey retained the BLK/MRKT name and gallery, which he relocated to Culver City, California. Fairey retained the offices and most of the employees to create Studio Number One and the gallery was renamed Subliminal Projects. Studio No. 1 has since gone on to produce numerous memorable album covers, concert and film posters. In 2004, Fairey created the magazine Swindle with his old friend Roger Gastman. Swindle is a quarterly publication that features fashion, art, music and other pop-culture elements. During the 2004 presidential election, Fairey teamed up with artists Mear One and Robbie Conal to create a series of anti-Bush/anti-war posters for the street-art campaign: Be The Revolution. In 2005, Fairey accepted a residency at the Contemporary Museum in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he created murals and prints that reveal a dramatic combination of constructivist style with distinctly traditional Hawaiian themes and influences. Amanda Fairey gave birth to the couple’s first child, Vivienne in June 2005, she is the namesake of punk fashion legend Vivienne Westwood. Vivienne would be the model for Fairey’s “Vivi La Revolucion” print of 2008. Fairey's street-art, was featured with that of Dan Witz...

"Summoning" is a vibrant piece from Eelus from an edition of 125. Hand signed and numbered by Eelus. A wonderful piece for the collector looking for a contemporary street art...

"Conjuring" is a vibrant piece from Eelus from an edition of 175. Hand signed and numbered by Eelus. A wonderful piece for the collector looking for a contemporary street art...

Silkscreen in 9 colors on 320 gram Coventry Rag Dimensions: 29" x 29" Signed by the Artists in pencil An edition of 75 John “CRASH” Matos and Eric Orr met for the first time as high school students. Although the exact location is unclear, both agree that it would have been at either Fashion Moda or the Writers’ Bench at 149th Street and Grand Concourse. Founded by Stefan Eins in 1978, Fashion Moda began as a “cultural concept” whose principles revolved around the fact that art can be made by anyone, anywhere and art should be accessible to anyone, anywhere. Located in the South Bronx, Fashion Moda embraced new talent and encouraged creative production across all mediums. The gallery has been credited as a major force behind the recognition of graffiti writing as an art form and it played a pivotal role in a community where Hip Hop was rapidly emerging. CRASH was only 19 years old when he curated “Graffiti Art Success for America” at Fashion Moda and his varied experiences at the gallery would later inspire his founding of WALLWORKS. The 149th Street Writers’ Bench, located at the back of the uptown...

In 1984, Eric Orr and Keith Haring joined forces to create a series of chalk drawings in the NYC subways. As their work evolved, the artists shifted their focus from the subway to the studio and embarked on the production of a suite of drawings. Included in the group was Repeat which had made its first appearance in the 23rd Street IRT uptown station. Little did Orr and Haring know that the reimagined drawing would be auctioned at Christie’s six years later. 2020 heralds a new beginning for Repeat, a truly unique silkscreen print that both illustrates and celebrates a fierce friendship that began in the early 1980s at The Roxy roller rink in NYC, when two young artists decided to trade t-shirts on the dance floor. Repeat, Eric Orr and Keith Haring, 2020 Silkscreen on 320 gram Coventry Rag paper with hand-deckled edges Dimensions: 20 x 28 inches Edition Size: 250 with 25 Artist Proofs and 25 Printer Proofs Signed and numbered in pencil by Eric Orr Plate signed by Eric Orr and Keith Haring Courtesy of Eric Orr and the Keith Haring Foundation Printed and Published by Gary Lichtenstein...

"Falling for You," Eric Orr, 2022 Silkscreen on 290 gram Coventry Rag paper Dimensions: 13 3/4" x 17 1/4" Signed and numbered by the Artist in pencil An editio...

"Nola" Dark Orange to Light Orange Rain, AP. Screenprint on arches paper. Edition of 66 artist's proofs comprised of six different colour variants, published in 2008 by Pictures on...

Five colour screen print on Somerset Satin 300gsm paper. Published in 2016. Edition 8/10. Signed by the artist.

A screen print on arches paper. Produced in 1990. Edition of 33 + 5 Artist Proofs. This being number 27/33. Littmann P.182. Signed and numbered in pencil by the artist. This work wa...