Hans portrait of Obama is believed to have helped the future president to victory. But ahead of the autumn's American election, the American artist Shepard Fairey is trying above all to get his fellow countrymen to go and vote.
The street is as good an exhibition space as Fotografiska in Stockholm for Shepard Fairey, but that does not mean he wants to call himself a street artist. Nevertheless, it is the street art tools he frequently uses in his images: collage, spray paint, and silhouette painting. His mural paintings can be found on six different continents, he explains.
The nearest one can be seen in Copenhagen, nine others back home in Los Angeles.
I have made 135 large ones. It's just a matter of googling.
He is most famous, however, for the image "Hope" of Barack Obama, which also opens the exhibition "Photo synthesis" at Fotografiska in Stockholm. Shepard Fairey based it on a news photograph and was later forced to pay compensation to the American news agency AP, which threatened to sue him. But for Shepard Fairey, the most important thing was to create the portrait itself.
Thank-you letter
First, he did it as a free downloadable image on his website. After the election, he received a thank-you letter from the new president, and now "Hope" hangs at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
I didn't think it would become the massive viral phenomenon it became. I didn't do it for any campaign, I just wanted to show my support for Obama. When I made it, nobody thought Obama would have a chance.
Almost all of Shepard Fairey's art is political. With his stylized image of a man's face, "André the giant", originally a joke image of a wrestler, he discovered the power of the space usually reserved for advertising. Fairey began combining the images with the word "obey" – obey – to shake up those who follow the path of least resistance instead of offering resistance.
"No solution"
Ahead of the autumn's presidential election, he has made paintings urging people to vote, which will be displayed on billboards.
I like Biden, but he's no convincing leader. Portraying Biden as a hero is no solution ahead of this election, says Fairey.
In 2016, he painted Donald Trump's angry mouth for the Scottish band Franz Ferdinand's single "Demagogue".
But Trump is an amoeba of negative energy that only grows the more attention he gets. He wouldn't exist as a political force if he had just been ignored, which he should have been. He's a malicious cartoon character, an idiot. I'm not doing anything about him for that reason.
Born: 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina.
Lives: In Los Angeles.
Occupation: Artist and activist working in classic street art techniques. He is most famous for his portrait of Barack Obama from 2008, which now hangs at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. He also made a series of portraits used on posters in the women's marches in 2017, arranged in protest against Donald Trump having been elected as the new president.
On display: At Fotografiska in Stockholm with the exhibition "Photo synthesis", 14 June to 13 October.
