Shepard Fairey - The Iconic Icon

As I enter Shepard Fairey’s Los Angeles studio on a sunny October afternoon, a considerably large painting of Andy Warhol sits on an easel, eyes focused and looming directly over the shoulder of Fairey as he adds watercolor touches to a series of works on paper.

- By Evan Pricco. Portrait by Jeffrey Rovner.

I can’t help but see the significance of the moment, of this scene. Fairey could, rather easily or perhaps too nonchalantly, be compared to Warhol, an ambassador of something we call Pop, an artist who changed the perception and definition of what art could be on a rather large scale. Their work also shares a strong sense of defiance and subversion, punctuated by a powerful use and commentary on media. Here was an image of Warhol overlooking a prodigal son; in the same way, Fairey’s Obey Giant iconography has ominously surveyed the landscape of cities around the world as this ubiquitous message of surveillance, but also in a way, a message of hope and rebellion against predominant forms of political and social control, created by what Fairey dubs the “puppet masters.” That Fairey was putting the finishing touches on a body of work he calls Icons to close out 2023 at his gallery, Subliminal Projects, all feels perfectly aligned with who he is, what he has become to so many, and the lessons of Warhol—so largely prominent in our conversation.