Shepard Fairey

born 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina

lives and works in Los Angeles

Shepard Fairey is an American graphic artist and social activist. He belongs to the street art movement and is in the tradition of Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Fairey engages in social and political critique through murals in public spaces. The iconic portrait Hope (2008) for then-presidential candidate Barack Obama is perhaps his most famous work. Fairey also caused a stir with the sticker campaign Obey (1992), which he initiated while still a student at the Rhode Island School of Design. Through type and image, Fairey blurs the boundaries between art and commerce. His works belong to the collections of the Smithsonian Museums in Washington, D.C., the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.