Shepard Fairey

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Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina) is a contemporary graphic designer. 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's design for the feature film Walk the Line

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 street/graffiti 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 LineIn 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.

Fairey working with Hawaii-themed art at an official installation at the Makiki Skate Park during his fellowship at [The Contemporary Museum] in Makiki in Honolulu

A forthcoming book, "Supply and Demand. The Art of Shepard Fairey" is slated for release in July 2006.

Appearances in other media

More recently Shepard Feirey/Obey has appeared in Marc Ecko's 2006 video game, ''||Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure .''

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Shepard Fairey

Appearances in other media

External links