30 Shepard Fairey Pieces You Should Know

Image via Complex Original

This is the image that started it all. Andre the Giant Has a Posse was originally created in 1989 so Shepard could show a friend how to screen print. The now famous sticker has been slapped up over a million times in hundreds (if not thousands) of different cities around the world. What began as an experiment in phenomenology eventually turned into the largest sticker campaign the world has ever seen.

This is a very early Shepard Fairey screen print from 1993, which depicts Andre’s face and was included in the iconic John Van Hamersveld Hendrix Shrine 68 print. This print remains highly sought after and only a few of the 50 or so unsigned prints have ever made it into the secondary market. Atypical of Shepard’s usual color palette, this print will go down as one of the strangest and coolest OBEY prints of all time.

The first OBEY icon appeared in the mid-’90s and utilized the “grinny” Andre the Giant face. Later, due to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Andre’s family and the WWF, the face had to be changed to a more ambiguous image. The newer Icon can be seen in artwork to this day, and it often makes an appearance in Shepard’s clothing line, OBEY Giant.

Icons of all types have appeared in Shepard’s work, from dictators to athletes and musicians. The Beatles set, based on photographs by John Kelley, is a highly sought after set amongst OBEY collectors, and is often referred to as the holy grail of OBEY. There have even been attempts to sell stolen and bootlegged versions of this print set. Andre as George Harrison remains a favorite amongst the OBEY Posse.

This is a classic late ’90s OBEY image where Andre’s face is morphed with Che’s. From the bible of Obey: Supply & Demand, “The Che Guevara photo, taken by Alberto Korda in 1960, is probably the most clichéd image of rebellion worldwide. I stole it not so much to endorse what Che was about or what he did, but to demonstrate that symbols become easy to manipulate after they have a life beyond their real history. I see lots of kids with Che T-shirts who probably know nothing about him besides his rebel status.”

Gene Simmons makeup and blood plus Andre’s face...what’s not to love?

Always one to play with the perception of icons, Shepard has used Marilyn Monroe’s image in two different cases. The first print, Andre Warhol, was released in 1995, and Marilyn Warhol came out in 2000. As stated in Obey: Supply & Demand, “Andy Warhol was a big inspiration, because he made a mockery of the fine art world, taking press stills and household items and turning them into high art. I felt like what I was doing was pop art in a similar vein, but I was taking it even further outside the institutions and straight to the street.”

Released in 1998, Ming remains one of the most sought after prints from Shepard’s propaganda era (mid to late ’90s). From Obey: Supply & Demand: “The subject of this image was often mistaken as Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, perhaps just because it seems so sinister. Ming the Merciless was a character from the Flash Gordon comics during the ’30s, a period when there was a lot of paranoia about communism in China.”

The cult classic movie The Big Lebowski has its own festival, and in 2002, Shepard was asked to design and produce the festival print. Based on Oliver Atkins’ 1970 photograph, his image will go down as one of the strangest subject matters ever seen in an OBEY work.

Originally released as a print image in 2004, the original obeygiant.com advertising blurb for this print was, “If you like graffiti, ’50s advertising characters, stencils, or you don’t like the war…you’ll love Mr. Spray.” Years later, Strangeco released the vinyl figurine seen here.

The image of the Loom was first seen in 2002 and additionally has made an appearance in Freedom of the Press, which was used as the official show poster for the "Printed Matters" show at Shepard’s Subliminal Projects Gallery in 2010. The text, “Freedom of the press is guaranteed to those who own one,” was added below the loom itself, and a collaged background was also included.

Released in 2007, Peace Goddess was the first print released on obeygiant.com that was limited to one print per household. To this day, with almost any OBEY release, there is a limit on purchasing mostly due to the fact that Shepard still sells his prints for under the secondary market value, usually in the $45-$75 range.

Released in 2005, this image is based on Howard Sochurek’s 1960 photograph of Dr. Martin Luther King, which was published in LIFE magazine. The screen print is an edition of 300, and while all the prints are numbered, due to an error, some low-numbered prints were shipped unsigned.

Shepard’s wife Amanda has been the subject of a few of his pieces including Commanda from 2007.

This print is based on a 1970 Chinese propaganda poster titled Government is Established Through Guns! Seen here is the HPM (hand-printed multiple) on wood, which includes collage work and screen print. For most releases these days, there are a number of mediums produced, ranging from screen prints on paper to prints on wood and metal and stencils on canvas.

Released in 2007, Sunsets is a beautiful piece commenting on how pollution visibly changes the skies. Having lived in Los Angeles since the late ’90s, this is a subject that surely hits close to home.

Every year, the members of thegiant.org vote on the print of the year, and in 2007, War by Numbers won over some intense competition. OBEY collectors will always look back at 2007 as one of the strongest years as far as releases go. Seen here is the canvas version.

In 2008, Shepard had the honor of redesigning the covers for the George Orwell classics 1984 and Animal Farm. To coincide with the release, a small number of limited screen prints were also sold.

In case you didn’t know, Shepard did this one, too.

A cult classic amongst OBEY collectors due to its large run of 1500, Big Proof Forever is a memorial piece to the late Big Proof of D12. Proceeds from this print go directly towards the Big Proof Forever Foundation. You can buy a copy here.

The subject of capitalism comes up fairly often in OBEY works. Shepard has a very realistic approach to the art business, realizing that there is both a good side and bad side to capitalism. These views are expressed in this piece that was released as a fine art piece, print, and dollar bill given to guests at Shepard’s 2007 Jonathan LeVine Gallery show.

This instant classic image was released in 2009 and has since been painted by the OBEY crew on a library in West Hollywood. The mural, which stands at 70-feet tall and 106-feet wide, was Shepard’s largest public work to date and was completely funded without any taxpayer money. Even the wall space was donated.

In 2009, Shepard linked up with Upper Deck to create a set of prints honoring the career of Michael Jordan. The three prints include Jordan North Carolina, Jordan Chicago Bulls, and Jordan Hall of Fame. Large format prints were produced by esteemed printers Modern Multiples and some were also signed by MJ.

In the mid-2000s OBEY produced a bootleg Hello Kitty and OBEY collaboration sticker, but it was not until 2010 when they were able to officially hook up and create a collaborative print which was released in three colorways.

In May 2010, the final show at the legendary Deitch Projects featured a large body of work by Shepard including a range of his fine art pieces. The highlight of the show was the new body of portraiture work, which featured the likes of Basquiat, Keith Haring, Muhammad Ali, the Dalai Lama, and others. Prints were released with many of the fine art pieces to coincide with the show.

One of Shepard’s newer bodies of work is his album cover series. To date, over 100 different record covers have been produced and sold in various box sets, fine art prints, and shirts. Shepard recently released the newest installment at his gallery in Los Angeles in a show titled "50 Shades of Black."

These images were released in 2010 and 2011 as an homage to influential pop artist Roy Lichtenstein and the Ben-Day dots technique he used.

In 2012, Shepard collaborated with famed British artist Jamie Reid on two pieces including Bright Future. This mural was painted in Denver when Shepard was in town for his show with Black Book Gallery.

In 2012, Neil Young and Crazy Horse released an album titled Americana, and Shepard was asked to produce an image for each track. Prints were released individually as well as in a box set.

This image was released this year in conjunction with Ai Weiwei’s show at the Brooklyn Museum. The print was released on OBEY’s site in addition to being available as a perk for donating to the museum.