It’s been a year since Artist Shepard Fairey, whose studio and ad agency is located in Echo Park, was arrested in Boston for slapping his images on public and private property on the eve of his first museum retrospective. This month finds Fairey preparing for the Supply & Demand show to travel to the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, where it will open Feb. 20 The exhibit also includes outdoor displays of Fairey’s work pasted around town – but these are legal, the museum explains:
“The external projects are murals at sites throughout the
Greater Cincinnati region that have been secured with the permission of the owners in advance.”
Despite Fairey’s legal woes, plenty of Cincinnati property owners with some blank wall space responded when the museum
began searching for mural sites . “The CAC’s public call for sites has been incredibly popular, with enthusiastic response from Mason to Covington and more,” the museum said in
a press release.
Artist Shepard Fairey, whose main studio and office are located in Echo Park, conceded late today that he had “submitted false images and deleted other images” to cover up a mistake he made battling a copyright infringement lawsuit over Fairey’s well known Obama “Hope” poster.
The artist, in a statement posted on his website, admitted his mistake and offered an apology:
“In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images. I sincerely apologize for my lapse in judgment and I take full responsibility for my actions which were mine alone. I am taking every step to correct the information and I regret I did not come forward sooner.
I am very sorry to have hurt and disappointed colleagues, friends, and family who have supported me in this difficult case and trying time in my life.”
The New York Times reports that Fairey’s attorneys have said they will seek permission from the court to resign as the artist’s legal counsel in the legal fight against Associated Press. The AP has claimed that Fairey used one of its photos without permission to create the Obama “Hope” poster.
The Eastsider posted a story earlier this week about artist Shepard Fairey protecting his Echo Park studio and office building from taggers and vandals a few weeks after he plead guilty to vandalism charges for his street art tactics. He is obviously not pleased with the story and wanted an opportunity to respond:
“Your post about the sealer on our building was very obnoxious. Do you just not give a shit about objectivity? My practice as a street artist has NEVER included putting my work on pristine or operational buildings unless asked to do so. I’m not mad at the graff artists who have hit our building, I just like the brick unadorned. I’ve always been a champion of street art and graffiti in the same way I’m a champion of free speech. I think it is important for people to be able to speak freely, but if I’m watching a channel whose content is not my cup of tea I may choose to change the channel. It does not make me an opponent of free speech. Preferring my brick unadorned does not make me anti-graffiti. Every time I put a piece of art on the street I know it may be cleaned. That is the nature of the art form. Our building houses a fucking gallery and we show street artist’s work there and on banners on the side of the building. For you to portray me as anti-street art is very revealing about YOU and YOUR agenda. Are you pro-street art or graffiti? If the answer is yes, then I’d assume based on your portrayal of me, that you’d welcome graffiti on your house or business lest you be revealed to be an anti-art hypocrite. If you have any integrity you will post my response along with your home and office address as an invitation for people to display their art there. Your attempt to portray me as hypocrite was thinly veiled incitement for people to tag our building. I have been arrested 15 times and know the risks of street art. Do you know the risks of being an irresponsible journalist? I responded to your inquiry very politely and you disrespected my candor by taking a cheap shot… writing something irresponsible and sensational to get people to your site. You could have written something more sophisticated and balanced that could have created a worthwhile discussion about public art. Instead you were lazy and obnoxious. Maybe the economy has made you desperate, or maybe you are always slime. Either way, you should be ashamed.”
It looks like the growing arts community in Elysian Valley, aka Frogtown, has a new and high profile member. Shepard Fairey, the artist best known for his Obama “Hope” poster, has opened a fine art studio in an unmarked industrial building near Worthen and Ripple streets in the neighborhood wedged between the 5 Freeway and the Los Angeles River, according to residents and artists in the area. Fairey’s arrival could attract more artists and attention as well as raise concern about gentrification in the neighborhood of narrow streets, small homes and cinder block warehouses. Read more.
Photo by Veronica via Flickr
Saturday, February 7, 2009
The Echo Park-based artist was arrested Friday night by police in Boston on graffiti charges as the creator of the well-known Obama “Hope” poster was in town for the opening of his first major museum retrospective. Fairey, 38, is no stranger to jail, claiming he’s been arrested at least 14 times, according to the Boston Globe. Earlier this week, Fairey, who lives in Los Feliz and runs his studio and ad agency out of Echo Park, was negotiating a settlement with Associated Press, which claims the artist failed to get permission to use one of its photos to create the Obama poster.
Fairey’s problems may not be over when he returns to Los Angeles. On Friday, a building inspector was scheduled to visit the artist’s Echo Park office (pictured above) to determine if a giant Obama “Hope” banner hanging from the side of the building was an illegal supergraphic or legal sign. Stay tuned.
On Friday, artist Shepard Fairey, whose studio is located in Echo Park, will see his first museum retrospective open in Boston. But that career highlight has been undermined by news that Associated Press claims the artist’s famed Obama “Hope” poster infringed on its copyright. The image was based on a photo taken by an AP photographer. Fairey is reportedly in negotiations to settle the dispute, according to AP via LAist
Photo: Institute of Contemporary Art
Artist Shepard Fairey, the Echo Park-based artist and creator of the iconic Obama poster, has turned his artistic talents to a new cause: pet adoption. The poster, which echos the colors and style of the Obama image, features a dog wearing a circular tag that reads “A Mutt Like Me” and the website address for the organization AdoptaPet.com.
“Our nations shelters are filled to capacity with all kinds of amazing adoptable animals including, as Obama put it, “Mutts like me,” said Fairey in a statement posted on
ObeyGiant.com. “As most of you know, I’m a big believer in speaking up for all who suffer injustice, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation or in this case, species! And I’m all for adopting from the shelter. My wife and I share our home with 2 pooches, George and Weezie, who is a rescue. They are the happy canine siblings to our 2 human daughters.”
The Adopt dog poster features a pooch who Fairey said reminds him of a childhood pet named Honey. The original Obama “Hope” portrait
was acquired earlier this week by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
The National Portrait Gallery has acquired the original collage created by Shepard Fairey, whose studio and advertising agency are located in Echo Park. The artwork that became the defining image of Obama’s presidential campaign will be on view at the museum only a few blocks from the White House in time for Inauguration day.
“This is the original collage that the prints and campaign materials were based on,” museum spokeswoman Bethany Bentley said in an email.
The gallery purchased the five-foot-tall collage through the Irvine Gallery in Washington with a donation from Washington D.C. art collectors Heather and Tony Podesta, a big player in Washington politics and the brother of John Podesta, who heads the Obama transition team. The museum would not disclose the price. More details in a museum press release.
Image: National Portrait Gallery
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