Shepard Fairey (Obey)

United States Born in: 1970 Bestsellers Masterpieces

Movements: Activist Artists, Famous Street Artists, Provocative artists

Shepard Fairey alias Obey was born in 1970 in Charleston, US.

He gets to know the universe of graphic design very early, at age 14, when he draws images to be printed on t-shirts and skateboards. He is influenced by the work of artists such as Andy Warhol or Russian artist Alexander Rodtchenko.

In the late 1980s, Obey and a group of friends from the Rhode Island School of Design create a series of stickers and posters with the figure of wrestler Andre the Giant and stick thousands of them on the walls of American cities. Andre the Giant Has a Posse is one of the first and most important "viral" Street Art campaigns, showing the ability and force of this new illegal means of expression.

His work became world famous during the U.S. presidential campaign in 2008, with the creation of the poster HOPE of Barack Obama that became an icon of the campaign. The Institute of contemporary art in Boston considered Obey as one of the best and most influential street artists of our time.