Fairey graduated from RISD in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts in Illustration. After graduation, he founded a small printing business in Providence, RI called Alternate Graphics, specializing in tshirt and sticker silkscreens, which afforded Fairey the ability to continue pursuing his own artwork. While residing in Providence in 1994, Fairey met American filmmaker Helen Stickler, who had also attended Rhode Island School of Design and graduated with a film degree. The following spring, Helen completed the first short documentary film about Shepard and his work, titled "Andre the Giant has a Posse." The film premiered in the 1995 New York Underground Film Festival, and then went on to play at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival. To date the short movie has been seen in more than 70 festivals and museums internationally, and remains an important early documentation of Fairey's work and ethos.
Fairey was a founding partner along with Dave Kinsey and Phillip DeWolff of the design studio BLK/MRKT Inc. from 1997-2003 which specialised in guerilla marketing, and "the development of high-impact marketing campaigns." Clients included Pepsi, Hasbro and Netscape.
Walk the Line movie poster created by Shepard Fairey.
Walk the Line movie poster created by Shepard Fairey.
In 2003 he founded the Studio Number One design agency.[7] The agency produced the cover work for the Black Eyed Peas's album Monkey Business and the poster for the film Walk the Line.[7] Fairey has also designed the covers for The Smashing Pumpkins' album Zeitgeist, [8] Flogging Molly's CD/DVD Whiskey on a Sunday, and the Led Zeppelin compilation Mothership.
In 2004, Fairey joined artists Robbie Conal and Mear One to create a series of "anti-war, anti-Bush" posters for a street art campaign called "Be the Revolution" for the art collective Post Gen. 2005 saw Fairey and DJ Shadow collaborating on a box set. It included t-shirts, stickers, prints, and a mix CD by Shadow. In 2005 he also was a resident artist at the Contemporary Museum, Honolulu. In 2006, Fairey contributed eight vinyl etchings to a limited-edition series of 12" singles by alternative rock icons Mission of Burma, and has also produced work for Interpol.
In 2004, Shepard Fairey co-founded Swindle Magazine with Roger Gastman.
His book, "Supply and Demand: The Art of Shepard Fairey," was released in July 2006.
According to Eric Lyle, Fairey has cynically turned graffiti culture into a self-promoting ad campaign, turning street art into a cheap hustle that is no different from corporate advertising.[9] On the other hand, San Diego Union-Tribune art critic Robert L. Pincus says Fairey's, "is political art with a strong sense of visual style and emotional authenticity. Even in times when political art has ebbed, Fairey's has just the right balance of seriousness, irony and wit to fit the mood of the moment."
Fairey currently resides in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Amanda and daughter Vivienne. They are expecting their second child in early 2008. Fairey is actively supporting Barack Obama for president in 2008.
