The street artist famous for his red, white and blue “Hope” posters of President Barack Obama has been arrested and accused of tagging property with graffiti, police said this weekend.
Shepard Fairey was arrested on Friday on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston for an event marking the opening of his first solo exhibition, Supply and Demand.
Fairey, 38, of Los Angeles, has spent the past two weeks in the city installing the exhibition and creating outdoor art, including a 6 metre by 15 metre banner on the side of city hall, according to the museum. He was released a few hours after his arrest.
“Shepard Fairey was completely unaware that there were any warrants for his arrest. Had he known, he would have resolved all such issues before the opening of his art exhibit at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston,” his lawyer, Jeffrey Wiesner, said.
Fairey has been arrested numerous times for painting on buildings and other private property without permission.
His Obama image has been sold on hundreds of thousands of stickers and posters, and was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington before Obama’s inauguration.
The image is the subject of a copyright dispute with the Associated Press. Fairey argues his use of the AP photo is protected by “fair use”, which allows exceptions to copyright laws based on, among other factors, how much of the original is used, what the new work is used for and how the original is affected by the new work.
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Other graffity people will not be able to paint for 2 weeks before getting arrested ..
This is always an interesting one for debate… where do you draw the line between street art and graffiti. It’s a bit like the difference between weeds and flowers – weeds are taken to be the flowers you didn’t plan on getting. That’s not to say that there are some wild flowers that enhance the look of a garden though.
I think Shepard Fairey and Banksy both walk a fine tightrope between high art and vandalism. No-one commissions them and their activities are clandestine, but there are people who’d give their right arm for a Banksy on their wall. Also, if they started to work to commission the art would be a bit neutered, as any anti-establishment art thrives on confrontation. (Banksy is probably already too established to be anti establishment anyhow, now that Hollywood stars are buying up walls he’s painted!)
I guess it does depend whether you wanted those images on your house which side you take, but they do have many fans.
Obey has been going years before Banksy… and he’s much more popular over there. His stuff sells for millions and he has a clothing range, magazine and custom watches ect.