artist/ SHEPARD

USA

Shepard Fairey also known by the alias “Obey” was born in 1970 in Charleston, US.

He gets to know the universe of graphic design very early, at age 14, when he draws images to be printed on t-shirts and skateboards. Shepard Fairey is influenced by the work of artists such as Andy Warhol or Russian artist Alexander Rodtchenko.

In the late 1980s, Shepard Fairey (Obey) and a group of friends from the Rhode Island School of Design create a series of stickers and posters with the figure of wrestler Andre the Giant and stick thousands of them on the walls of American cities. “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” is one of the first and most important viral Street Art campaigns, showing the ability and force of this new illegal means of expression.

Shepard Fairey’s work became world famous during the U.S. presidential campaign in 2008, with the creation of the poster HOPE of Barack Obama that became an icon of the campaign. The Institute of contemporary art in Boston considered Shepard Fairey (Obey) as one of the best and most influential street artists of our time.