Shepard Fairey is an increasingly recognizable name working in popular, accessible imagery. The 40-year-old Los Angeles-based artist, trained at prestigious Rhode Island School of Design and has become one of the most well-known “street artists” for appropriating images from mass media — from wrestler/actor Andre the Giant to our President — for use on stickers and posters that carry strong, sometimes-political, graffiti-style messages.
By bringing Supply and Demand, this expansive exhibition of Fairey’s work, to Cincinnati, the CAC is making a move to relate the critical art dialogue that takes place within the institution to popular culture at large in our city. One component of this exhibition will involve Fairey working in public spaces and on mural projects, but not unauthorized graffiti. The CAC has been working for several months to secure a range of proposed sites around the city for sanctioned, permitted paper murals that will be glued to the walls and bring the art from the enormous exhibition out into our urban landscape. The other will be around 250 pieces of Fairey’s work on display inside of the museum.
Through Aug. 22. Get details and read Matt Morris’ interview with Fairey here.
This article appears in Feb 10-16, 2010.
