Shepard Fairey @ Jonathan LeVine Gallery
06.27.07 | Posted in: Art & Design, Events | By: Kellis LandrumTags: Fine Art, Gallery, Graphic Design, Illustration, Shepard Fairey
Shepard Fairey’s new show E Pluribus Venom opens to the public this saturday at Jonathan Levine Gallery in NY. This show will be the artist’s first solo show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery and will feature a second, off-site exhibition space for the artist to exhibit large-scale installations and murals on wood and canvas. Shepard Fairey’s provocative collection includes politically charged paintings, screen prints, stencils, album covers and mixed media pieces rich with metaphor, humor and seductive decorative elements.
E Pluribus Venom, which translates “out of many, poison,” is derived from E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one) an early motto adopted by the U.S. government, which appears on U.S. coins and dollar bills. For Shepard Fairey, many becoming one, or a loss of power and the influence of the individual in favor of homogeny is a symptom of a society in decline. E Pluribus Venom entails a two-fold metaphor: referring to the poison in the American system and the individuals who are motivated by venom and have anger towards this system.
The exhibition is comprised of artworks designed to scrutinize the dichotomy of symbols and methods associated with ideologies of the American Dream. Fairey’s artwork comments on underpinnings of the capitalist machine, critiquing those who support blind nationalism and war. Fairey addresses monolithic institutional authority, the role of counter culture, and independent individuals who question the cultural paradigm. Utilizing currency motifs and a Norman Rockwell aesthetic, Fairey employs the graphic language of the subjects they critique. Blending Art Nouveau, hippie, and revolutionary propaganda styles, he celebrates subjects advocating peace. His works blur the perceived barriers between propaganda and escapist decoration, political responsibility and humor with the intent of stimulating both viscerally and intellectually.
June 27th, 2007 at 10:23 am
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November 24th, 2007 at 10:23 am
That shit’s disturbing.
I heard the “splasher” hit Obey’s studio wall on Sunset Blvd & dumped paint thiner down his vents.
This dude’s in it for real. We want the truth.
November 28th, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Plagiarism
In response to Fairey’s solo exhibition, Imperfect Union, (December, 2007) at the Merry Karnowski Gallery in Los Angeles, California, Mark Vallen, renowned artist, activist, illustrator and curator criticizes Fairey’s work and career as an artist, in a essay published on his Art for a Change web site. Vallen expresses his outrage at how Fairey has made a career “out of the consistent, secretive and wholesale copying of other people’s artworks” and describes why, in his opinion, “it should make obvious that anyone so ill-informed should not be in the vanguard of today’s political art”. He identifies Fairey’s work as “machine art that any second-rate art student could produce” by picking apart Fairey’s heavy usage of “silly portraits of a dead wrestling champion” as well as “absurdist propaganda”. Vallen acuses Fairey of “toying with the veneer of radical politics” when “his views are hollow and non-committal”. Vallen also explains how Fairey is “deceiving people by pawning off counterfeit works as original creations” with numerous examples of original pieces shown side by side with Fairey’s “lucrative OBEY fashion line” version. In the example of the White Panther logo, Vallen emphasizes that by “exploiting the panther logo for profit by printing it on boutique clothing, Fairey has accelerated the dehistoricization and commodification of American history”, and in his opinion, “has forfeited his ability to speak as a dissident”. He states that “Fairey is guilty of utilizing historic images simply because he “likes” them, and not because he has any grasp of their significance as objects of art or history”. Vallen further supports that “Fairey simply filches artworks and hopes that no one notices” and that “these days any amateur with a minimally written crackpot manifesto can make waves in the world of art”. If Fairey has “developed a profitable livelihood exclusively based on pilfering the artworks of others”, Vallen ultimately asks “can Shepard Fairey honestly be described as an artist who can critically assess the unholy union of government and big business, or offer comments on the underpinnings of the capitalist machine?”. Koloman Moser, Ralph “Bingo” Chaplin, Pirkle Jones, Rupert Garcia, Rene Mederos, Félix Beltrán and Gary Grimshaw are a few of the plagiarized artists that are mentioned in Vallen’s critique.
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm
November 28th, 2007 at 9:08 pm
OMFG, this is like comparing the sex pistols to Mozart. Sure Sid Vicious could barely play bass, but if you let that stop you from liking the Sex Pistols your totally missing the point. This guy needs to take the stick out of his butt and lay off the haterade.
December 2nd, 2007 at 7:44 am
Mark Vallen is simply trying to jumpstart his go-nowhere career by bashing someone who actually HAS one. It’s a time-honored tradition among the second-rate and failing. The fact that he passed out literature– including HIS OWN ART– amongst those standing in line at Fairey’s show ought to tell you he’s simply an opportunist out to raise his own profile. If he were truly interested in constructive dialogue he would have picked up the phone and made the local call to Fairey to ask him about it. Then, if he wasn’t satisfied with the answers– or at least wanted to include them– he could have offered up the other side of the coin. Instead, he posted a shrill call of “Look at Me!” in hopes of selling a few more canvases of his Jr. High caliber artwork. Pretty sad, really.
September 29th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I like Fairey´s graphic style.
But the guy is a plagiarist. Plain and simple.
Even if Mark Vallen has the worst of intentions, it still doesnt change the fact that the side-by-side comparisons of Faireys work and those of others leaves no doubt in my mind whatsoever, that he totally lacks professional integrity and obviously also inspiration to create original work.
Now he is making a bundle copying others, and people either dont want to believe he is a fake, or they dont care.
As they say; The bigger the lie, the more believe it.