Nodame88’s musings

(pics source: ICA)

Saturday, I went to the ICA to see the new Shepard Fairey exhibit “Supply and Demand” (now til August 16, 2009). He came into the mainstream with his work “Hope” with Obama in it.Fairey has other works around the Boston and Cambridge area too and the ICA has a tour to check them out during the week and weekends. I have to do it when I have a free weekend.

The first museum survey of one of the most influential street artists of our time (source: ICA)

From humble beginnings as a defiant, skateboard-obsessed art student pasting homemade stickers, Shepard Fairey has developed into one of the most influential street artists of our time. Despite breaking many of the spoken and unspoken rules of contemporary art and culture, his work is now seen in museums and galleries, as well as the worlds of graphic design and signature apparel. His multi-faceted, open-ended and generous artistic practice actively resists categorization. Building off of precedents set by artists such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring, Fairey shifts easily between the realms of fine, commercial, and even political art.

Fairey’s multi-layered renderings of counter-cultural revolutionaries and rap, punk and rock stars, as well as updated and re-imagined propaganda-style posters, carry his signature graphic style, marked by his frequent use of black, white, and red. Recently, his portrait of Barack Obama, a ubiquitous sight on the campaign trail, drew a new level of attention to the artist’s work and was recently acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, for its collection.

Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand   traces the development of the artist’s career, from the earliest Obey imagery through his latest efforts, and includes screen prints, stencils, stickers, rubylith illustrations, collages, and works on wood, metal, and canvas. The artist is also creating a new mural for the ICA and public art works at sites around Boston.
Shepard Fairey: Supply & Demand is sponsored by Levi Strauss & Co. 

Additional support is provided by Hal and Jodi Hess, Patricia La Valley and Geoff Hargadon, and Timothy Phillips.

Media Sponsor  

I was really impressed by the amount of work he has accomplished at his age. I plan to go again to check it out and give a bit more time to it than I was able to give this weekend.