A major figure of the contemporary street art movement, Shepard Fairey rose to prominence in the early 1990s with his “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” campaign, which distributed posters, stickers, and murals featuring the eponymous wrestler around Providence, Rhode Island. Fairey’s iconic 2008 “Hope” campaign poster for President Barack Obama encapsulates a number of the artist’s recurring concerns, including propaganda, portraiture, and political power. Fairey’s work, which has sold for six figures at auction, can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
I grew up in South Carolina, so when I saw street art and graffiti up everywhere on my early trips to New York, I fell in love with the art form. It wasn’t about elitists institutions, and that inspired me. Keith Haring’s philosophy that “the public has a right to art” was embodied in his street art and the art products he made affordable for the masses, all of which made my path as an artist very clear. Keith Haring is a hero of mine because of his mission to make his work accessible and make art more democratic. Haring’s hybrid of street, gallery, products and clothing, with all pushing forward social commentary. He funded his accessible works, like t-shirts, posters, pins, through his fine art paintings, which is a model that I have adopted myself. This letterpress print is an homage to Keith Haring as an artist, activist, shaper of culture and personal role model.
I did this illustration because I love Keith Haring and his art, but also because I had an opportunity to do something very cool with Adobe, so keep your eyes peeled for that project. In the meantime, here’s the print. Thank you to photographer Paulo Fridman for providing the reference image for this illustration.
– Shepard
