Even if you don’t know his name, you’ve seen his work — Los Angeles-based street artist SHEPARD FAIREY donated his design to the Obama campaign all season, in galleries, auctions, and publications the world over. Our favorite incarnation of his design: the Nanobama.
Just when we thought he was done, it turns out that not only is MoveOn.org giving away free stickers and selling (for just 20 bucks) a new poster, entitled, YES WE DID, but, as we heard him leak last Wednesday night at an urban art panel at Bonhams, he plans on re-releasing a new run and some leftovers of the original HOPE and PROGRESS posters on his Web site as soon as the end of this week.
As of 20 minutes ago they were still sold out, but keep watching the page. We have a feeling there might just be a few more hidden around somewhere.
The panel itself had to do with the usefulness, accuracy, and implications of the term “urban art.” Turns out, taggers, graffiti artists, poster artists, other kinds of public interventionists, are quite territorial about the terminology they accept. The struggle to come to a consensus was never resolved and even got pretty heated at times. In the end, although it was a lively and memorable conversation, the only thing that people really learned is that you have to log on in the first ten minutes of a new release if you want to get a Shepard Fairey on the primary market, and those eBay mark-ups are a killer.
– Shana Nys Dambrot