ART: Shepard Fairey @ Deitch opens tomorrow (5/1)

From the Los Angeles Times: Jeffrey Deitch is planning to close his New York gallery with a bang. The art dealer, who was recently named the new director of Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art, said that his final exhibition will be a solo show of work by street artist (and political lightening rod) Shepard Fairey.

Speaking on the phone from New York, Deitch said the exhibition will feature "probably more than 20 works" by Fairey. The show is set to open May 1 and will run through the month at Deitch Projects' SoHo location on Wooster Street.

Deitch said the theme of the exhibition is Fairey's "vision of America" and will include portraits of some of Fairey's "American heroes." He said that the artist has been working on the project for about a year.

A spokesman for Fairey at the artist's L.A. studio said portraits in the show will primarily depict people from the fields of music, culture and art -- including Debbie Harry and Woodie Guthrie. In addition, the show will feature portraits of the Dalai Lama and political activist Aung San Suu Kyi.

Fairey is also planning on creating site-specific outdoor murals as part of the exhibition. His studio said that there will be several of these large-scale murals and that "we try to do as much outdoor as indoor work."

As part of his new job at MOCA, Deitch will cease his gallery operations to avoid conflicts of interest. Deitch started representing Fairey last summer.

MORE FROM Fairey's site:

Opening Reception on May 1st, 6-9pm
May 01, 2010 — May 29, 2010

Deitch Projects
18 Wooster Street, New York City

Deitch Projects is pleased to present May Day, an exhibition of new work by Shepard Fairey, as its final project. Titled not only in reference to the day of the exhibition’s opening, the multiple meanings of May Day resonate throughout the artist’s new body of work. Originally a celebration of spring and the rebirth it represents, May Day is also observed in many countries as International Worker’s Day or Labor Day, a day of political demonstrations and celebrations coordinated by unions and socialist groups. “Mayday” is also the distress signal used by pilots, police and firefighters in times of emergency.

ART: Shepard Fairey @ BK Museum 4/25

From Flavorpill:

The Brooklyn Museum says:

One of the most influential street artists of our time, Shepard Fairey will discuss his career and work with Associate Curator of Exhibitions Sharon Matt Atkins on Sunday, April 25 at 3 p.m. at the Brooklyn Museum. A book signing of Supply and Demand and Obey: E Pluribus Venom will follow the talk.

The world's best-known street artist, the controversial and prolific Shepard Fairey, is in town for a major solo exhibition at Deitch Projects (in fact, the last exhibition Deitch has planned in his Wooster Street space, given his imminent departure for LA and his new life in the private sector). It's also the 20th anniversary, as impossible as that seems, of the publication of his seminal book Supply and Demand. This afternoon, he stops by the Brooklyn Museum for a book-signing and farther-reaching conversation on his life and career as an artist, icon, and lightning-rod. - Shana Nys Dambrot

OBAMA!

Fairey's iconic image

ART/SCENE: OBEY = VOTE!

South Carolina native Shepard Fairey continues to "Rock The Vote" with a series of video postcards created in mid-October in his Los Angeles studio and in New York. The video postcards will begin circulating virally today (10/22) and will feature Jack Black, Joaquin Phoenix, and Saul Williams, as well as Fairey's eclectic mix of talented friends whom have their own significant community. Think: pro-skateboarders, owners of popular clothing companies, infamous street artists, snowboarders, singers of goth bands, drum n bass DJ’s, authors, famed tattoo artists, fashion models, renowned architects, web-celebs, museum quality photographers…the cultural tastemakers - be they hipsters, outsiders, misfits or squares - who are brimming with HOPEand FIRED UP to get a message across: WE NEED AMERICA TO VOTE EARLY!

Shepard Fairey is a contemporary artist, graphic designer and illustrator who emerged from the skateboarding scene and became known initially for his "André the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign. The Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston calls him one of today's best known and most influential street artists. He usually omits his first name. (source)

Fairey has an exhibit up until December 6 at Irvine Contemporary in Washington, DC, his second monograph, E Pluribus Venom, was recently published by Gingko Press, and the Boston Institute for Contemporary Art is planning a retrospective exhibition of Fairey's work for February, 2009.