Shepard Fairey

Hope

Shepard Fairey is an artist and designer from Rhode Island, New York whose work came to worldwide prominence in 2008 by way of some simple postering as he implemented his personal voice for political change. When Obama's people got wind of the campaign, Fairey's voice was amplified and change was in the air. His now-famous 'HOPE' stencil artwork is recognised the world over. The piece was called "the most efficacious American political illustration since 'Uncle Sam Wants You'" by The New Yorker art critic Peter Schjeldahl and now hangs at the US National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.

Obey

Fairey's work wasn't completely unknown before the Obama Campaign however. It's his Andre the Giant has a Posse stickering street artwork that found him initial recognition amongst artists and creatives. The title morphed into Obey Giant and welcomed an international network of collaborators and replicators to spread the hype.

That hype turned into a clothing brand and helped to identify Fairey as a leader in guerilla marketing with studio BLK/MRKT, boasting clients from Pepsi, Hasbro and Netscape. Since then Fairey has worked on album covers for Smashing Pumpkins (Zeitgeist) and Led Zeppelin (Mothership) as well as the artwork for Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line.

Propaganda art

A now signature style, Fairey's suits perfectly to a political statement, harking back to imagery as American as Uncle Sam and as powerfully iconic as communist poster art while often subverting the meaning via propaganda iconography. Of course the all-seeing eyes of Obey Giant stickered and postered around the world is extremely Big Brother-esque, too.

Amsterdam Central Station

Is this artwork sounding familiar? Landing in Amsterdam recently for a DJ gig in support of friend and long time collaborator Z-Trip, Shepard Fairey returned to the streets using the city walls as his gallery space and gave a make over to the plain timber boarding that covers up Amsterdam Central Station's renovations. Simple and political at times, intricate and without agenda at others, stop for a moment as you're rushing to catch your next train and take in the affecting work of one of the most influential artists of our time, for free.