Fairey's work was often very large, and an anchor for work of other NYC street artists....see faint image of Mao above the wolf's head on right side. This image is from 11 Spring street (today....the building houses truly luxury condos) Now Fairey is both famous enough and legally at risk enough that he prefers venues such as Warhol Museum...see his opening, below.
Shepard Fairey's exhibit at the Warhol Museum opened October 17th at the Warhol. It was absolutely jammed. Fairey's artwork has serious young hipster credentials. And young hipsters were there in force. The line to get in literally went around the block.The work is good...it is very good. I have a particular fondness for his street art as I have taken photos of his images in New York in combination with works by other street artists. His giant Mao poster was an anchor for a ton of other smaller images that then accumulated at the corner of Spring and Elizabeth Streets in the Nolita area of downtown NYC.
However, I was rather taken a back by the review in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette asking if Fairey could be Warhol's heir ....well NO!!! Most simply because Warhol's influence on pop culture and fine art was mind bogglingly broad...movies, music, photos, painting, as well as prints...and on and on.
But it is a great review, and you can read it here
Wall posters of his artwork are up, legally, all over Pittsburgh. See the story on the terrific PGH art blog Bitterweet Harvest here
There was a lot of additional media buzz after the opening about something Fairey said about which photo he used for the Obama poster...and how it meant he {Fairey} had or hadn't told the truth about...something...?? (who can keep UP with all this stuff)!!
The Fairey exhibit at the Warhol is up through early January.
Finally to wrap up...........during all the hoopla about Fairey I have heard VERY little in the local press reminding us of a burning issue that connects Pittsburgh and Fairey....are we that polite???!!!!
Ofcourse, I refer to the shocking lawsuit that Fairey filed against local hero Steeler baby. Ofcourse, "we" won. Fairey dropped his suit.
Read the story on Gawker here
The Steeler Baby website is here
Even though the suit is settled,I expected to see protesters at the exhibit opening...but there were none!!!
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1 comment:
STEELERBABY was a guest of Shepard Fairey to his opening night reception at the Warhol Museum. Fairey offered, in person, his side of the great STEELEBABY brouhaha. In short, after looking at www.steelerbaby.com and the overall concept (and admittedly only after his overzealous lawyers shot the C+D letter at STEELEBABY), his quote back to them was, "You've got to be f#cking kidding me." Apology accepted.
pix here
Forgiveness is a beautiful thing.
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