Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey is an American artist and graphic designer whose work developed from skateboarding, punk and street graphics. While studying at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1989, he created the André the Giant sticker that grew into the Obey Giant campaign. Posters, stencils and repeated public images became central to his practice.

His Hope portrait of Barack Obama became closely associated with the 2008 US presidential election. He has also established design and clothing businesses and exhibited internationally. His work repeatedly draws on propaganda, protest imagery and commercial advertising, examining how familiar visual forms carry political messages.