Ministry -Shepard Fairey – Imperial glory

Shepard Fairey – Imperial glory

Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina) is a contemporary street-art artist, graphics artist and illustrator from the skateboard scene. First known for his “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker campaign. He usually uses only his second name and surname.

He became widely known during the 2008 U.S. presidential election for his Barack Obama “Hope” poster. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today’s best known and most influential street artists. His work is included in the collections at The Smithsonian, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Fairey invented the “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker campaign in 1989 while studying at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD).
This developed into the “Obey Giant” campaign, which then developed into a worldwide campaign through the collaboration and reproduction of the stickers. His Obey campaign uses various quotes from the John Carpenter movie “They Live!”, including the “Obey” quote and the “This is Your God” quote. Other influences on the Obey campaign include feminist conceptual artist Barbara Kruger, as well as the artist Robbie Conal Fairey, who graduated from RISD in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in Illustration.

He then founded a small print shop called “Alternate Graphics” in Providence (Rhode Island), specializing in screen printing, T-shirts and stickers. While in Providence, Fairey met American filmmaker Helen Stickler in 1994, who also attended RISD, where she graduated in film. In spring 1995 Stickler completed a short film about Fairey and his art. The film premiered in 1995 at the New York Underground Film Festival. It was also shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997 and at over 70 other film festivals and museums worldwide.

Shepard Fairey, Dave Kinsey and Phillip DeWolff founded the design agency BLK/MRKT in 1997. They were specialized in guerrilla marketing and the development of powerful marketing campaigns in particular. Clients included Pepsi, Hasbro and Netscape. Fairey left BLK/MRKT in 2003 and founded his own agency “Studio Number One”. This agency works on projects for clients such as Virgin, Adidas and Nike. Fairey founded the fashion label “OBEY clothing” in 2001.