Expanding on the legacies of artists such as Keith Haring and Andy Warhol, Shepard Fairey’s practice disrupts the distinction between fine and commercial art. A major artist of the street art movement, Fairey emerged from the skateboarding scene of the early 1990s and quickly gained notoriety through the dispersion of posters, stickers, and murals, related to his Obey Giant campaign, which yielded an international cultural phenomenon. Fairey’s iconic poster of President Barack Obama was adopted as the official emblem associated with the 2008 presidential campaign and encapsulates a number of recurring motifs in the artist’s work, including propaganda, portraiture, political power, and the relationship between them.
