RISE - On the Brink Arts CIC Fundraiser

As a young adult, Shepard Fairey became very interested in art. He soon began to use his drawings in T-shirts and skateboards. He was a skateboard-obsessed art student. While in school, Shepard Fairey held a part-time job in a skateboarding shop. Soon after, he hit the skateboard community hard by pasting homemade stickers all over the place. It was then that he realized his desire and interest in the street art culture and graffiti movement. Another strong influence was his love for punk music, which he demonstrated stencils.

One of the first images he ever used was that of Andre the Giant. Shepard Fairey found this image in a newspaper ad and he chose to introduce it to the streets.

Shepard Fairey is one of the most influential street artists of our time. Shepard Fairey’s work has been used in screen-prints, stencils, stickers, masking film illustrations, wheat paste, collages, sculptures, posters, paintings, and murals. Shepard Fairey enjoys working with the colours black, white, and red. Fairey has constantly shifted between the realms of fine art, commercial art, street art, and even political art.

This print is from the Brown Power series, which adopts the visual language of the Black Power movement and uses a softened Pan-African colour scheme (red, black, and green) to portray several African-American freedom fighters.

I create art as a way to deconstruct meanings and start much-needed conversations on causes and issues that I believe in. In 1998, I created a series of works I called the “Giant Nubian” series with recognizable colours and themes to portray several African-American freedom fighters. Last year, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of OBEY GIANT, we released the “Facing the Giant: Three Decades of Dissent” print series, a collection of limited edition, large format fine-art prints on custom paper.