ICA: Shepard Fairey's "Supply and Demand"

I caught this exhibit at the ICA Boston just before I left for Germany. It serves as a general overview of the now-infamous Shepard Fairey, whose work ranges from public murals to comedic stencils to book and album covers to political posters.


By creating a set of specific, easily recognizable images and repeating them throughout much of his work, Fairey merges artistic design with self-branding. He often limits himself to a red, black, and white palette, resulting in distinct and bold pieces.

The exhibition traces his earliest artistic endeavors of Andre the Giant imagery stamped around Providence while he was attending RISD and follows them through the years of celebrity portraits, anti-war canvases, and numerous public art campaigns, landing on a gorgeous large-scale mural he created just for the show.

I enjoy Fairey's work a lot. I know that there is a lot of controversy over his appropriation of photographs and what not, but I still think he has a lot of talent with design, stenciling, and layering. His technical ability cannot be denied, even if some portions of his pieces were brought in from other sources. Many artists appropriate from photographs or film stills, but it's the way they incorporate them into original works that matters.


I love the variations in tone and texture Fairey has developed in a lot of his larger pieces. They make quite an impact.

All in all, an interesting and diverse collection of works by an already-prolific artist. It's really cool to see a street artist receive such a high-profile exhibition, lending legitimacy to the art form.

Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand is up until August 16 at the ICA. Also keep an eye out for some public works he installed around the Boston area in honor of the exhibition, like the one above I spotted in Harvard, and the now-defunct mural at Tufts University.

Street Art and Graffiti around Europe

I have been living in Tuebingen, Germany for about a month now, and I've found the large amount of graffiti around here very interesting. It's a very old city, so the contrast between brightly coloured, rebellious tags and quaint, historical buildings on cobblestone streets took a little getting used to, but I really like it. I've taken to photographing anything I find cool or funny as I walk around, and did the same while recently visiting Paris and Barcelona (the latter had much less in the way of graffiti, perhaps due to the already-established artfulness of its architecture and sidewalks). While I'm not a big fan of generic tagging (it's just sort of boring), I think that more thoughtfully rendered stenciled images and text, whether humorous or political, can really add beauty to an urban area. It's fun to walk around and see constantly fluctuating imagery in public spaces. Here are some of my favourites so far:



I'll be sure to post more as I see it!

Back to the Grindstone

Hello, everyone. I'm totally in Tuebingen, Germany for the next several months, and I plan on doing many art-related things! For now, here are some photos I've taken of a nearby Gothic monastery and the plentiful local street art. More updates coming shortly!

Street Art/Graffiti
Bebenhausen Monastery

Poster Boy is Caught, or is it a Stand-In?

Doesn't the NYPD have more important things to do, instead of stomping out street artists? Good luck, Poster Boy!

Graffiti or Art?

From the New York Times, October 24:

While Banksy, the pseudonymous British artist, keeps New Yorkers guessing about where his next mural or installation may pop up, a council in London has ordered that one of his works must come down there, the BBC reported. The Westminster City Council has ruled that a 23-foot Banksy mural must be removed from the wall of a building on Newman Street, in central London, as a message to discourage graffiti. The mural, “One Nation Under CCTV,” refers to the closed-circuit televisions that have become ubiquitous security devices in London. It depicts that slogan stenciled in large letters, being painted by a youth in a hooded sweatshirt, as a police officer with a camera and a dog stand nearby. “If you condone this, then you condone graffiti all over London,” said Robert Davis, the council’s deputy leader, according to the BBC.

When does graffiti become art? And, on the other hand, where is the line that separates public or street art from a community nuisance?

It depends on your perspective, I guess. I think that finding things like Banksy's murals can be one of the best parts about living in a city: you have to always look for them, but it's still surprising every time you find one. And then you have that wonderful feeling of discovery, as though you're the first and only person to ever notice the stencil or the mural or the writing on the wall.

It's also interesting that this mural was the one selected to be taken down. One of the first things I noticed about London was the prevalence of CCTV cameras. They are absolutely everywhere - I've stood on a street corner and counted 7 cameras within sight, and that was just on the outsides of the buildings. This mural is actually relatively near where I live. Although I had seen pictures of it before, the first time I walked past it still made me pause: just outside the frame of the picture is a security camera.

HONK!: Street Art?

I suppose you could call the HONK! festival "street art", but that description doesn't quite capture the energy of this annual event. Over Columbus Day weekend, activist marching bands paraded through Mass Ave. from Davis Square in Somerville to Harvard Square: blowing trumpets, pounding on drums, circling on decorated bikes and towering above the crowd on stilts. All with different causes, it seemed that the march was not so much a focus on any particular issue, but rather a way to bring together the community in a fun, aesthetically and musically-engaging awareness of their ability to be heard. The overarching theme of this year's parade was "Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes, and Feet!" Plenty of each there were, and though the tunes blasting from the horns in each band were different, each blended almost seamlessly into the next as they made their way past the crowds. Check out the photos for a taste of this eclectic event.