Tiger Woods art print poster by Shepard Fairey coming soon

Arrested Motion has mentioned the next athlete poster Shepard Fairey is going to do will have golfer Tiger Woods as the subject. More to come....

Shepard Fairey X Michael Jordan poster art print

Well looks like Shepard has done some more work for Upper Deck. More than likely another limited edition print signed by Jordan and Fairey like the Kobe print Shepard did last year.

Obey Shepard Fairey Soup Can III print release

SHEPARD FAIREY
Soup Can III, 2009
Hand printed silkscreen and pencil on manila acid free archival paper
16 x 20 inches
Edition of 200
Numbered and signed by the artist
A random time on September 9. They will announce the time on their facebook page
Be fast as they sell the price the price keeps going up

Buy it at Iconoclast Editions

Shepard Fairey Evolve Devolve offset print

This looks really cool but the first edition silk screen edition looks better. This one has the collage pattern in the background like his HPM's and installations.

ON sale random time September 1
$35 open edition signed
24 x 36

www.obeygiant.com

Art Basel Miami: Shepard Fairey x Country Club

As part of the programs surrounding Art Basel Miami Beach this year, Shepard Fairey will unveil a major new mural consisting of a barricade structure covered with paintings. Located at The Fountainhead Residency property, an artist’s studio program in a residential-neighborhood of Miami, the site will be an unexpected venue for Fairey’s work. The artist’s typical approach to placing his images involves urban explorations of neglected, unclaimed or interstitial sites. The blank canvas of the barricade will provide a significant expanse for Fairey to develop a cohesive series of images. The project is being produced by Country Club, a gallery with locations in Los Angeles and Cincinnati, in partnership with the Miami Art Museum and The Fountainhead Residency.

Shepard Fairey at the Warhol Museum installation video

Video of Shepard Fairey making the outdoor mural at The Warhol and talking about MoveOn.org.

Could not post the video on here. Go to the Post Gazette to watch it.

New Shepard Fairey print Close Knit

From Shepard

I chose to illustrate this image of two girls knitting (in a Rush Arts program) because I think it really captures the idea that learning art in schools is about more than crayon drawings, it’s about creativity, something that transcends all class and race boundaries. I think the joy of making something is universal, and it’s an opportunity that every kid should have.
- Shepard

This print will go on sale on 8/20/09 at a random time and is $50 with proceeds going to the Rush Arts Charity. 18 x 24, Signed and Numbered Edition of 450.

Click here for more info on the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation

Obey Giant

Shepard Fairey: You Darn Kids Stop Tagging My Wall!

This is pretty funny. Stories were posted on Eastsider La and Mother Jones.

After pleading guilty to vandalism charges in Boston over his guerrilla art tactics, artist Shepard Fairey had to deal with acts of vandalism closer to home. A few days ago workers sandblasted the brick exterior of his Echo Park studio, gallery and ad agency - called Studio Number One - and applied a shiny layer of anti-graffiti coating to the walls. Frequent tagging and graffiti had apparently taken a toll on the Sunset Boulevard building and Fairey, who rose to fame by employing the same hit-and-run tactics of graffiti artists and taggers.

"When graff seeped into the raw brick it was very difficult to clean," said Fairey, creator of the Obama "Hope" poster, in an email forwarded by one of his employees. "The building is historic and I love and want to protect the brick. The city was never any help with removal. Graffiti is par for the course."

The expensive layer of anti-graffiti coating won't prevent tagging. But it will make removing spray paint much easier and faster and perhaps make Fairey's big brick wall a less inviting canvas for taggers.

"Obviously I have experience with graff," said Fairey, "and there is not much point hitting a spot that will be cleaned immediately."

Shepards email to Eastsider La after the story:

"Your post about the sealer on our building was very obnoxious. Do you just not give a shit about objectivity? My practice as a street artist has NEVER included putting my work on pristine or operational buildings unless asked to do so. I'm not mad at the graff artists who have hit our building, I just like the brick unadorned. I've always been a champion of street art and graffiti in the same way I'm a champion of free speech. I think it is important for people to be able to speak freely, but if I'm watching a channel whose content is not my cup of tea I may choose to change the channel. It does not make me an opponent of free speech. Preferring my brick unadorned does not make me anti-graffiti. Every time I put a piece of art on the street I know it may be cleaned. That is the nature of the art form. Our building houses a fucking gallery and we show street artist's work there and on banners on the side of the building. For you to portray me as anti-street art is very revealing about YOU and YOUR agenda. Are you pro-street art or graffiti? If the answer is yes, then I'd assume based on your portrayal of me, that you'd welcome graffiti on your house or business lest you be revealed to be an anti-art hypocrite. If you have any integrity you will post my response along with your home and office address as an invitation for people to display their art there. Your attempt to portray me as hypocrite was thinly veiled incitement for people to tag our building. I have been arrested 15 times and know the risks of street art. Do you know the risks of being an irresponsible journalist? I responded to your inquiry very politely and you disrespected my candor by taking a cheap shot... writing something irresponsible and sensational to get people to your site. You could have written something more sophisticated and balanced that could have created a worthwhile discussion about public art. Instead you were lazy and obnoxious. Maybe the economy has made you desperate, or maybe you are always slime. Either way, you should be ashamed."

Mother Jones comment on the email. They received a nicer one after they ran the story.

Jesus, indeed! Worthwhile discussion of public art aside, this is way off the mark. If you read the original Eastsider post, you'll see that the only openly critical part is its headline: "This is one wall Shepard Fairey wants to keep free of self-expression." The rest is pretty straightforward reporting. It was the commenters who accused Fairey of hypocrisy and suggested that his studio might now be an even bigger target for spraypainters. C'mon, Shepard—you know how to tell the difference between mild-mannered bloggers and their less restrained commenters. Just as you no doubt appreciate the difference between, say, a street artist who says he never messes with other people's property without permission and the anonymous fans who plastered gazillions of his Andre the Giant Has a Posse stickers around the world.

Shepard Fairey interviews Banksy for Swindle magazine

Its an old interview but some people might not have gotten a chance to read.

One of the most inappropriate nicknames of all time, at least in my opinion, belonged to Ronald Reagan: “The Great Communicator,” who we’ve come to learn did a pretty shitty job of communicating the government’s problems and indiscretions. A nickname like that deserves a more righteous, honest owner—someone like BANKSY.

Most people think of art as a way of conveying emotions, as opposed to language, the means by which we express ideas. Whatever line there is distinguishing art and language, BANKSY paints over it to make it disappear, then stealthily repaints it in the unlikeliness of places. His works, whether he puts them on the streets, sells them in galleries, or hangs them in museums on the sly, are filled with imagery tweaked into metaphors that cross all language barriers. The images are brilliant and funny, yet so simple and accessible that even children can find the meaning in them: even if six-year-olds don’t know the first thing about culture wars, they have no trouble recognizing that something is amiss when they see a picture of the Mona Lisa holding a rocket launcher. A lot of artists can be neurotic, self-indulgent snobs using art for their own catharsis, but BANKSY distances himself from his work, using art to plant the feelings of discontent and distrust of authority that anyone can experience when he prompts them to ask themselves one gigantic question: Why is this wrong? If it makes people feel and think, he’s accomplished his goal.

BANKSY’s work embodies everything I like about art and nothing I dislike about it. His art is accessible rather than elitist, since he does it on the street; it has a powerful political message that’s conveyed with a sense of humor, which certainly makes the bitter pill easier to swallow; it’s pleasing to look at, because it’s technically very strong but not overly complex and intimidating; and he pulls it off in such a way that its presence in its context communicates not only his message but his dedication to effecting the change he promotes in that message, whether he’s defying Israeli hegemony by painting the separation wall in Palestine or bypassing the elitist review board of a museum by hanging his work himself. He definitely has his share of critics, who say that he burns too many bridges by rejecting countless opportunities to gain money or fame, but he simply has no interest in doing anything that falls outside his goal of making provocative, powerful artwork. He’s a good friend and a tremendous source of inspiration; he’s The Great Communicator of our time, and the most important living artist in the world.

How long are you going to remain anonymous, working through the medium itself and through your agent as a voice for you?

B: I have no interest in ever coming out. I figure there are enough self-opinionated assholes trying to get their ugly little faces in front of you as it is. You ask a lot of kids today what they want to be when they grow up, and they say, “I want to be famous.” You ask them for what reason and they don’t know or care. I think Andy Warhol got it wrong: in the future, so many people are going to become famous that one day everybody will end up being anonymous for 15 minutes. I’m just trying to make the pictures look good; I’m not into trying to make myself look good. I’m not into fashion. The pictures generally look better than I do when we’re out on the street together. Plus, I obviously have issues with the cops. And besides, it’s a pretty safe bet that the reality of me would be a crushing disappointment to a couple of 15-year-old kids out there.

What got you into graffiti? I know that you did more traditional graffiti at one point.

B: I come from a relatively small city in southern England. When I was about 10 years old, a kid called 3D was painting the streets hard. I think he’d been to New York and was the first to bring spray painting back to Bristol. I grew up seeing spray paint on the streets way before I ever saw it in a magazine or on a computer. 3D quit painting and formed the band Massive Attack, which may have been good for him but was a big loss for the city. Graffiti was the thing we all loved at school – we all did it on the bus on the way home from school. Everyone was doing it.

What’s your definition of the word “graffiti”?

B: I love graffiti. I love the word. Some people get hung up over it, but I think they’re fighting a losing battle. Graffiti equals amazing to me. Every other type of art compared to graffiti is a step down—no two ways about it. If you operate outside of graffiti, you operate at a lower level. Other art has less to offer people, it means less, and it’s weaker. I make normal paintings if I have ideas that are too complex or offensive to go out on the street, but if I ever stopped being a graffiti writer I would be gutted. It would feel like being a basket weaver rather than being a proper artist.

Who are some of your favorite graffiti artists?

B: My favorite graffiti is done by people that aren’t in books. I’m really into the amateurs, the people who just come out of nowhere with a marker pen and write one funny thing for one night and then disappear.

“Street art” has been the cool buzzword, and artists have obtained instant credibility from these new fly-by-night galleries, skate companies wanting to do a new street art t-shirt series, whatever. All these people are picking artists that deserve to be picked and have really done work on the streets for 10 to 15 years, but then they also pick a lot of artists that have been doing something for four to six months and built themselves a nice little website. Where do you see yourself fit into that? If the pedestrians at these companies don’t really know who’s done what, how do you separate yourself from that?

B: Most graffiti writers arrive at a style by the need to work fast and quiet. If you arrived at a style by painstakingly drawing in your bedroom and touching up on Photoshop, then people can smell the difference from about five miles away.

How do you decide what commercial projects to work on?

B: I’ve done a few things to pay the bills, and I did the Blur album. It was a good record and it was quite a lot of money. I think that’s a really important distinction to make. If it’s something you actually believe in, doing something commercial doesn’t turn it to shit just because it’s commercial. Otherwise you’ve got to be a socialist rejecting capitalism altogether, because the idea that you can marry a quality product with a quality visual and be a part of that even though it’s capitalistic is sometimes a contradiction you can’t live with. But sometimes it’s perfectly symbiotic, like the Blur situation.

I’m sure you get offered jobs left and right. Are there things that you think about doing that you don’t do, or things that you wish you would’ve done?

B: I don’t do anything for anybody anymore, and I will never do a commercial job again. In some ways it’s a shame, cuz I’m sure I’d have had a good time doing posters for that frozen yogurt company in Hawaii and now I’d have friends I could go visit on the other side of the world. But it’s part of the job to shut the fuck up and not meet people. I never go to the openings of my shows, and I don’t read chat rooms or go on MySpace. All I know about what people think of my gear is what a couple of my friends tell me, and one of them always wants to borrow money, so I’m not sure how reliable he is.

I think there’s a lot to be said for the fine line between secondguessing yourself and respecting a dialogue with people whose opinions you trust, or even people that are great because they don’t know shit about art and you get the most honest reaction from them. Because so many artists, they worry about what trends are happening in art and design and street art, they read too many magazines, and they are too wrapped up in everything; they’re paralyzed.

What’s the most perfect non-traditional piece of art that you’ve seen that’s not currently hanging in a museum?

B: The most perfect piece of art I saw in recent times was during an anarchist demonstration in London a couple of years ago. Someone cut a strip of turf from the grass in front of Big Ben and put it on the head of the statue of Winston Churchill. Later, the demo turned into a riot, and photos of Winston with a grass Mohican were on the cover of every single British newspaper the next day. It was the most amazing bit of vandalism, because it was the perfect logo for this eco-punk movement that was trying to reclaim the streets, bring an end to global capitalism, and defend the right to sit in a park all day getting wasted on discount lager.

Your art is still free on the streets but costly in the galleries. What dictates that?

B: What I find is I don’t have much say in what things cost. Every time I sell things at a discount rate, most people put them on eBay and make more money than I charged them in the first place. The novelty with that soon wears off.

You were talking about how you want your books to be cheap because they show the work in the context of the street, as well as the installations in museums and other pranks, which are actually honest representations of your work. But then people want objects, so they’re going to want the canvases and things like that, and you’re just kind of accepting that people fetishize objects and are willing to pay a lot for the status of owning something that they can hang up.

B: I stenciled the door of an electrical block in south London and recently someone sawed it off and sold it at a famous auction house for £24,000, but in that same week Islington council power sprayed off eight of my new stencils on one road. What I’m finding is art is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it, or willing to pay to not have to look at it.

The redistribution of the wealth then allows you to have that freedom to put work on the street without the pressure of having to sell a thousand cheap canvases – work that’s free and accessible. It really means that the art objects, the canvases, only really play into the people that think in an elitist way and have the money. So really, it kind of balances out. That’s an issue that a lot of artists have. They believe that their work should be accessible to a lot of people, and that actually is the opposite of the way the art world works.

B: The art world is the biggest joke going. It’s a rest home for the overprivileged, the pretentious, and the weak. And modern art is a disgrace – never have so many people used so much stuff and taken so long to say so little. Still, the plus side is it’s probably the easiest business in the world to walk into with no talent and make a few bucks.

The murals you did in Palestine, I would assume, involved personal risk. You’re there, and you could definitely get some people pissed off and put yourself in jeopardy.

B: Every graffiti writer should go there. They’re building the biggest wall in the world. I painted on the Palestinian side, and a lot of them weren’t sure about what I was doing. They didn’t understand why I wasn’t just writing “down with Israel” in big letters and painting pictures of the Israeli prime minister hanging from a rope. And maybe they had a point. The guy that I stayed with got five days with the “dirty bag” for waving a Palestinian flag out a window. The dirty bag is when Israeli security services get a sack, wipe their shit on it, and put the bag over your head while your hands are tied behind your back. I spat out my falafel as he was explaining that to me, but he just goes, “That’s nothing. My cousin got it for two weeks without a break.” It’s difficult to come home and hear people complaining about reruns on TV after that. It’s very hard for the locals to paint illegally over there. We certainly weren’t doing it under the cloak of darkness; you’d get shot. We were out in the middle of the day, making it very clear we were tourists. Twice, we had serious trouble with the army, but one time the Palestinian border patrol pulled up in an armored truck. The Israeli government makes a big fuss about how they own the wall, despite building it right through the farmland of Palestinians who have been there for generations, so the Palestinian border police don’t give a shit if you paint it or not. They parked between the road and us, gave us water, and just watched. It’s probably the only time I’m ever going to paint whilst being covered by a cop from a roof-mounted submachine gun.

Did they realize that it favored the Palestinian perspective?

B: I have sympathy for both sides in that conflict, and I did receive quite a bit of support from regular Israelis, but if the Israeli government had known we were going over there to do a sustained painting attack on their wall, there’s no way that we’d have been tolerated. They’re very paranoid. They don’t want the wall to be an issue in the West. On the Israeli side of the wall they bank it up with soil and plant flowers so you don’t even know its there. On the Palestinian side it’s just a fucking huge mass of concrete.

You’ve never really been busted to the point of potentially not being able to do street art, but that’s always a possibility. I could be wrong – you could be incredible and never get caught, but everybody gets caught at some point. What would you do if you were put in that position? Would you rent walls? Would you try to find legal walls? Would you still try to find ways to have work on the street and still maintain your anonymity to a degree, but keep it out there through more legal means? Would you move to another country? What would you do?

B: I’m always trying to move on. You’re not supposed to get dumber as you get older. You’re not supposed to just do the same old thing. You’re supposed to find a new way through and carry on. I invest back into the street bombing from selling shit. Recently, I’ve been pretending to be a construction manager and paying cash to get scaffolding put up against buildings, then I cover the scaffolding with plastic sheeting and stand behind it making large paintings in the middle of the city. I could never have done that a few years ago. Plus, I’m always interested in finding new places to hit up; it’s easier to break into zoos and museums than train lay-ups, because they haven’t had so much of a graffiti problem in the past. Ultimately, I just want to make the right piece at the right time in the right place. Anything that stands in the way of achieving that piece is the enemy, whether it’s your mum, the cops, someone telling you that you sold out, or someone saying, “Let’s just stay in tonight and get pizza.”

Check out www.banksy.co.uk

Obey Giant Shepard Fairey ‘Soup Can III’ Coming Soon

Here is a little reminder that there is going to be another Obey ‘Soup Can’ print drop before the end of the month, this 3rd in the series of 4 prints. This will be released through Iconoclast again. Keep your eyes open for this one!!

Obey 'Soup Can III' Coming Soon Edition of 200 Size: 16 x 20 Inches $250 ++

This is the third of four color variations from the series of Fairey's interpretation of Warhol's iconic soup can images.

Released through Iconoclast Editions. Original Price increases as the edition sells through. The edition has presently only been sold privately to original owners of Soup Can I

OBEY GIANT * SHEPARD FAIREY - Clean Energy for America EVENT

Clean Energy for America
MoveOn.org, OBEY Giant, Netroots Nation invite you to a special party to commemorate the unveiling of a new outdoor installation by Shepard Fairey "Clean Energy for America" directly across from The Warhol Museum

Date:Friday, August 14th, 2009
Time:7pm - 10pm
Location:
117 Sandusky Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15212-5890 .

Open bar - Delicious hors d'oeuvres - Music Retro-soul-dance-party-throw-down by DJs Viper Soul Club and a special DJ appearance by Shepard Fairey
Free full size poster give-aways of "Clean Energy for America"
RSVP TO: shepardfaireywarholmuseumparty@gmail.com

Obey x Stereo Skateboard Decks

An exciting collaboration with streetwear brand Obey and Stereo Skateboards just launched on four pro decks designed by none other than Shepard Fairey. Some shops received shipments in the Spring on the decks, but Slam City Skates just got the lineup, amongst many other retailers.
Slam City is located in England and these £54.95 each from them you might want to wait until a retailer in the US has them.

Shepard Fairey Guest DJ on KCRW

Shepard Fairey is going to be a guest DJ on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic Tomorrow (Wednesday) at 11:15 am (PST). If you don’t live in Los Angeles you can listen live here tomorrow. For more information please visit kcrw’s website.

Power Up Windmill Offset Print by Obey Giant Shepard Fairey on sale

This is the same image used for the Moveon.org sticker
Power Up Windmill Offset Print
24x36 inches, Signed and Numbered by Shepard
Edition of 500
Thick Stock
$40

Buy it HERE.

Preview Obey Shepard Fairey Jessica print

Prints are being laid out for Shepard to sign for his upcoming release of this poster of his friend Jessica that beat breast cancer. The original piece of art was created for Lance Armstrongs Stages art show in France. Check out the video of Jessica and Shepard.

On sale details to follow.

Shepard Fairey Works a Plea in Boston

After a five month ordeal with Boston authorities, Shepard Fairey’s latest drama has finally come to an end. Shepard, who was arrested on January 22 at the ICA (reported), was initially charged with over 30 counts of vandalism, tagging and destruction of property. Between April and June, the courts threw out over 21 of the charges against Shepard. This past Friday, Fairey consented to a plea deal that will dismiss the remaining 11 vandalism charges. Conditions of the plea prohibit Shepard from “carrying stickers, posters, wheat paste, brushes and other tools of the graffiti trade while in Suffolk County for the next two years.”

In addition, under the arrangement, Fairey plead guilty to three vandalism charges and must pay a $2,000 fine. With this chapter behind him, Shepard is now free to focus on his upcoming body of work with his newly signed gallery, Deitch in New York

Shepard Fairey Moveon.org Clean Energy Sticker FREE

MoveOn's partnering with acclaimed artist Shepard Fairey — who designed the iconic Obama "Hope" poster — to offer a FREE "Clean Energy for America" sticker. The image was used recently on his Windmill art print. One stickers is free, 5 for $3 or 50 stickers for $20. Stickers are 4" x 5.125"

We need to show Congress that Americans are ready to make the switch to clean, renewable sources of energy. If hundreds of thousands of us put these stickers on our cars, bikes, laptops, lockers, cubicles, and dorm-room doors, we'll send a strong message that America's clean energy future matters to all of us.

Get them HERE.

Obey Shepard Fairey Close Knit Original art for auction

Here is an amazing original called ‘Close Knit’ up for charity auction HERE!

Shepard Fairey
Close Knit, 2009
Spray Painted Stencil & Mixed Media Collage on Canvas
44" x 60"

"I chose to illustrate this image of two girls knitting (in a Rush Arts Education program) because I think it really captures the idea that learning art in schools is about more than crayon drawings -- it's about creativity, something that transcends all class and race boundaries. I think the joy of making something is universal, and it's an opportunity that every kid should have."

Shepard Fairey is the man behind OBEY GIANT, the graphics that have changed the way people see art and the urban landscape. What started with an absurd sticker he created in 1989 while a student at the Rhode Island School of Design has since evolved into a worldwide street art campaign, as well as an acclaimed body of fine art. In 2003, Shepard founded Studio Number One, a creative design firm dedicated to applying his ethos at the intersection of art and enterprise. Shepard's art reached a new height of prominence in 2008, when his "HOPE" portrait of Barack Obama became the iconic image of the presidential campaign and helped inspire an unprecedented political movement.

New Original art by Shepard Fairey

New stencil collage by Shepard Fairey. 72 x 50, really hope this gets turned into a print sometime in the future.

Arkitip Additional Shepard Fairey Print

Arkitip will be making an additional signed, silk screen print available with Issue No. 0051 featuring Shepard Fairey. The creation of this print was to make an truly exclusive print available to Arkitip and the Issue based on the understanding that there was some confusion in regards to information released that the first print included in the issue was expected to be a totally new design. The new design is the same size as the other print (7.5 x 10 In.) and fits snugly in it’s intended packaging and Signed by Shepard. Here are the details associated with this special offering:

All Arkitip subscribers who purchased their subscription prior to the cut off to include Issue No. 0051 will receive this print for no extra charge.

Because of this, there will be a delay in shipping all subscriptions while we prepare this print. Customers who pre-ordered the issue can purchase the additional print for $10.00 (inside USA) and $15.00 (outside USA) and these prices include shipping.

You cannot buy this print as a stand alone product, you must enter your order number in the notes field during checkout to confirm your original order. If you purchased more than one issue, please reference all order numbers and you can only purchase as many prints as you have purchased magazines to the limit of 4 per customer. Any orders that do not have this information will be canceled.

Starting today you can purchase the additional print at Arkitip and they will either ship it to you separately (if we have already shipped your order) or together, if we haven’t.

If you have not yet ordered your issue, you may order the issue with or without the additional print. If you would like the additional print, you do need to add it to your order and it will ship together.

We hope you enjoy this additional print, we think it really rounds out the package and is both a powerful and clever design. As a set, these two prints go well together making the whole package a must buy for any Shepard Fairey fan or art collector.

http://arkitip.com/magazines/0051-shepard-fairey.php