Flag (White). Silkscreen and Mixed Media Collage on Paper 73.7 x 111.8 cm Artist Proof 2011
RE:DEFINE Shepard Fairey
On Saturday, Sept. 24th a piece by Shepard Fairey will be auctioned off – along with 29 other works of international artist including Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Rankin, Dan Witz, Brian Adam Douglas – at a reception benefitting the MTV Staying Alive Foundation hosted by the Goss-Michael Foundation. One hundred percent of the proceeds will benefit the Staying Alive Foundation which encourages, energizes and empowers young people who are involved in HIV and AIDS awareness, education and prevention campaigns. For those unable to attend the event, absentee bids will also be accepted including via telephone – please visit www.mtvredefine.com for more information on how to bid. The Goss-Michael Foundation will be exhibiting all 30 works to the public from Sept. 16 – Sept 24. Admission is free.
About Shepard Fairey
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 studying 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.
The OBEY GIANT campaign is rooted in the DIY counterculture of punk rock and skateboarding, but it has also taken cues from popular culture, commercial marketing and political messaging. Fairey steeps his ideology and iconography in the self-empowerment of those who refuse to be manipulated by the machine of manufactured consent. With biting sarcasm verging on reverse psychology, he goads viewers, using the imperative ‘obey’, to take heed of the propagandists out to bend the world to their agendas. In 2003, Fairey founded Studio Number One, a creative firm dedicated to applying his ethos wherever art and enterprise intersect. Building from Fairey’s approach to design striking, thought-provoking work, the company has since evolved into its own creative entity and become one of the top boutique agencies in the country. Fairey’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. The original image now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Along with the Obama campaign, Fairey has also donated artwork and other contributions to charitable organizations such as the ACLU, MoveOn, Hope for Darfur, the Chiapas Relief Fund, marriage equality reform, 11th Hour Action, Hurricane Katrina relief, Southern California fire relief, shelters for L.A. teens, children’s charities in Iraq and the U.S., Free the West Memphis 3, Feeding America, Adopt-a-Pet.com and the Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation. As Fairey’s body of work reached its 20-year mark in 2009, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston honored him with a full-scale solo retrospective, which drew a record number of visitors for the museum. Entitled Supply and Demand, the exhibit shares its name with Fairey’s career-chronicling book, now in its second edition (Gingko Press). After its time in Boston, the Supply and Demand exhibition also made additional runs at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, and the Center for Contemporary Art in Cincinnati, OH. In May 2010, Fairey unveiled a new collection of work, entitled MAY DAY, through Deitch Projects as the world-renowned gallery’s final project.
