Shepard Fairey is a ‘bit’ of a controversial figure in the art world. If you’ve been living in Austin for the last 10 years like I have, you couldn’t have helped NOT seeing his OBEY and GIANT poster campaigns rip through the downtown area years ago.
Fairey being the master of the ‘underground’ poster campaign made him a natural choice for the Obama campaign when it came to picking an artist to tap for their central imagery-
Well, it seems that all the recent notoriety that Shepard has received (Deservedly so, that’s one badass poster) has re-opened some old wounds in people who still remember having to tear down his OBEY and GIANT posters in their ‘Keep Boston Beautiful’ Anti-Graffiti efforts.
On the way into one of his recent art openings in Boston, Shepard was arrested for what I’m assuming was some years-old postering. Yikes.
Read the story here- http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/18662913/detail.html
And while you’re at it, feel free to watch that video that is linked there. And realize Shepard is 38. And he looks a decade younger. Think there’s something in the wheat paste?
Hmm…
-alex fugazi