artist/ SHEPARD FAIREY

USA

Shepard Fairey known as Obey was born in 1970 in Charleston in the United States.

He immersed himself in the world of graphics at the age of 14, drawing images that would be plastered on t-shirts and skateboards.

Influenced by the work of Andy Warhol and the Russian artist Alexandre Rodchenko, he naturally moved towards artistic studies.

Thus, at the end of the 1980s, Obey and a group of friends from the Rhode Island School of Design created, based on the figure of the wrestler André the Giant, a series of stickers and posters which they clandestinely stuck by the thousands on the walls of American cities. It is one of the first and most important “viral” Street Art campaigns which shows the impactful capacity of this new form of clandestine expression.

His work was recognized worldwide during the 2008 American presidential campaign with the creation of Barack Obama’s HOPE poster which became an iconic image of the campaign. The President will personally thank him for the influence that his poster may have had during the presidential elections. The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston considers him one of the best and most influential street art artists of the moment. Despite everything, although he is one of the pioneers of street art, his works are considered by law to sometimes infringe on artistic property. During some of his setbacks with the law, this did not prevent his exhibitions in different museums from doubling in attendance.