Shepard Fairey Art Prints

Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina) is a contemporary artist, graphic designer and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today's best known and most influential street artists. Fairey created a series of posters supporting Barack Obama's candidacy for President in 2008, including the iconic "HOPE" portrait. He also created an exclusive design for Rock the Vote. On November 5, 2008, the city of Chicago posted street banners throughout the downtown Loop business district featuring Fairey's Obama "HOPE" portrait. The banners say "Congratulations Chicago's Own Barack Obama, President-Elect of the United States of America.". Fairey created two distinct images, "Change" and "Vote", for use by the official Obama Campaign, since his original image, which bore the word "Hope," could not be seen to have any official affiliation with the presidential campaign since it had been "perpetuated illegally", independently by the graffiti/street artist. Fairey distributed a staggering 300,000 stickers and 500,000 posters during the election campaign, funding his grassroots electioneering through poster and fine art sales."I just put all that money back into making more stuff, so I didn't keep any of the Obama money," said Fariey in a December 2008 interview. Fairey received a formal letter of thanks from Barack Obama for his contribution to his 2008 presidential campaign.