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Frank Shepard Fairey (born February 15, 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina) is a contemporary graphic designer. He is most noted for being the artist who, while attending the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 1989, created the "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, which has evolved into the "Obey Giant" campaign, and can now be seen all over the world. The campaign has become, in Fairey's words, an "experiment in phenomenology."

Fairey has cultivated an aesthetic of Western currency, using moire patterns and large portraits of famous figures like Richard Nixon. A series of works contains the line, "This is your God," referring to money. Fairey frequently uses wheatpaste to affix his large, propaganda-like posters to billboards, and his followers do the same to buildings.

Fairey graduated from Wando High School in 1988. He graduated from RISD in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in Illustration, and currently resides in Los Angeles, California. Using the slogan "The Medium is the Message" borrowed from Marshall McLuhan, Fairey has become one of the most well-known artists of the early 2000s. Originally partners in the BLK/MKRT graphic design firm with fellow designer and artist Dave Kinsey, Fairey split away in 2003 to found the design firm Studio Number One.

In 2004, Fairey joined artists Robbie Conal and Mear One to create a series of "anti-war, anti- Bush" posters for a street art campaign called "Be the Revolution" for the art collective Post Gen. 2005 saw Fairey and DJ Shadow collaborating on a box set. It included t-shirts, stickers, prints, and a mix CD by Shadow. In 2005 he also was a resident artist at Honolulu's The Contemporary Museum, as well as designing the poster art for the feature film Walk the Line In 2006, Fairey contributed eight vinyl etchings to a limited-edition series of 12" singles by alternative rock icons Mission of Burma, and has also produced work for Interpol and the Black Eyed Peas.

A forthcoming book, "Supply and Demand. The Art of Shepard Fairey" is slated for release in July 2006.

Influences

Shepard's work is influenced by artists such as Andy Warhol, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Barbara Kruger, and Diego Rivera. His "Obey" Campaign draws from the John Carpenter movie "They Live" , recycling the "Obey" slogan, as well as the "This is Your God" slogan.

Appearances in other media

The artwork for Flogging Molly's CD/DVD Whiskey on a Sunday (released July 25, 2006) was done by Shepard Fairey.

Shepard was on G4TechTv's "Icons" tv show

Criticism

Erik Brunetti claims that Shepard Fairey's studio, Giant, has plagiarized work from him and other artists and has set up a website to back up this claim. .

External links

• Studio Number One website
• Official Obey Giant Website
• Official Obey Giant Myspace
• TheGiant - The Definitive Obey & Shepard Fairey Website
• Exhibitions
• Interviews
• The Career Cookbook Profile
• Complete database of all known prints by Shepard Fairey .
• This Is Your God Exhibition
• Post Gen website

• American graffiti artists
• Contemporary artists
• Rhode Island School of Design alumni