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Happy Birthday, Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey

First Posted: 02/15/2012 8:48 am Updated: 02/15/2012 10:56 am

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On this day (February 15) in 1970, Shepard Fairey was born. The now-infamous graphic designer, illustrator, and poster fanatic emerged on the scene through his Andre the Giant street art campaign in the late 80s, back when Fairey was a student at the Rhode Island School of Design.

In a recent interview with Peter Simek at FrontRow, Fairey is asked about his work now that he has evolved from a paste-up skateboard punk to the creator of the incredibly popular pro-Obama "HOPE" election posters.

Is he a sell out? In response to Simek's line of questioning, Fairey retorts, "I...think that the idea, if you have ever done anything rebellious, that you’ve somehow contradicted yourself to work with the power structure to improve it and infiltrate it and change the culture of it, that’s elitist, isolationist, and stupid."

Happy Birthday, Mr. Fairey.

If you haven't seen his latest work at Dallas Contemporary, check out a time lapse video of him painting his "Citywide Street Project" mural here.

See a slideshow of his work below, and let us know what you think of the guerilla poster artist in the comments section.

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On this day (February 15) in 1970, Shepard Fairey was born. The now-infamous graphic designer, illustrator, and poster fanatic emerged on the scene through his Andre the Giant street art campaign in t...
On this day (February 15) in 1970, Shepard Fairey was born. The now-infamous graphic designer, illustrator, and poster fanatic emerged on the scene through his Andre the Giant street art campaign in t...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
TheWM
aka The Wrong Monkey
532 Fans
03:19 PM on 02/15/2012
"the idea, if you have ever done anything rebellious, that you’ve somehow contradicted yourself to work with the power structure to improve it and infiltrate it and change the culture of it, that’s elitist, isolationist, and stupid."

Yes. And unfortunately widespread. Maybe it's mostly a sour-grapes attitude from artists who never went big time.
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eric14
1108 Fans
 
11:49 AM on 02/15/2012
Stylistically, he is a child of Soviet Socialism realism which is a school of deco.
(Google 'soviet posters' - go to images).

I like his work a lot. Being immersed in his influences does not detract from it.
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