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Shepard Fairey at the ICA

Thursday nights are free at the Boston ICA (Institute of Contemporary Art), and since my office is a 10-minute walk from the ICA’s new-ish top-heavy building along the Boston Harbor, I felt compelled to go see the much-buzzed-about Shepard Fairey exhibition.

Why the buzz about Shepard Fairey? 3 reasons:

1. Fairey’s work is fun, sexy stuff with widespread appeal. Fairey’s a notorious street artist who, as an art student in 1989, touched off the notoriously viral “Andre the Giant has a posse” sticker campaign. His subsequent OBEY GIANT campaign serves as an inspiration to guerilla marketers everywhere (and we love that type of thing is Boston!) In addition, Fairey is a prolific producer of accessible art featuring revolutionary symbols, pop culture icons, subversive slogans, and Orwellian propaganda. At the ICA, there was a gallery of portraits of Fairey’s musical and cultural heroes: Joey Ramone, Glen Danzig, Noam Chomsky, Malcolm X, the Godfather, Ian MacKaye, Flava Flav, Iggy Pop, and dozens of others. Comparisons to Andy Warhol are mandatory.

2. Fairey entered mainstream consciousness with his iconic red, blue and white Obama HOPE portrait, which got him in legal trouble with the AP, and then vice versa. Here’s a video of Fairey talking about the wrangling…

3. Fairey was arrested by the Boston Police Department last month as he made his way to the ICA for the opening night party of this exhibition. Fairey’s crime? Vandalism! According to an article in today’s New York Times, Fairey might face over 3 dozen vandalism charges that accuse him of pasting his work on public and private property all over Boston, work that was apparently meant to complement the exhibit.

Before I saw Fairey’s work at the ICA, I was sort of hardened against his methods. Is it anti-art, stodgy, and uptight of me if I think public space should be kept clean and free of individual artistic expression? Because what if everyone decided to graffiti, paint, and sticker anything they desired? What makes Fairey’s artistic expression special enough to transcend common vandalism?

But maybe Boston’s purintanical zeal is wearing off on me, because the ICA exhibit swayed me that Fairey’s message is important and relevant. Fairey’s point is that so much of “public space” is already covered in commercial advertising. What gives the corporate juggernaut the right to invade public space… just because they paid for it? They didn’t pay me or most members of the public. Fairey has said about people’s reaction to his work, “‘Obey’ is offensive to their sense of independence. It makes them question.”

“I think the arrest was a publicity stunt,” A young man with pink dreadlocks speculated to his posse as we gazed upon a huge mural featuring a collage of red stenciling and newspaper. To which I wanted to posit, “His whole career is a publicity stunt.”

It was a cool, impressive exhibit. There were literally 100s of pieces, too much to take in at once, so I will be going back. And… have you ever seen a museum art label saying “From the collection of Lance Armstrong”?

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