The foremost contemporary practitioner of poster-based art is Shepard Fairey, better known as Obey. He uses the most affordable medium in Street Art to broadcast messages often significant from a political and social standpoint. The public began recognizing him as Obey in 1989, when he plastered cities with stickers and posters featuring the face of wrestler André the Giant accompanied by the imperative “Obey.” This marked the beginning of a cultural empire.
Shepard Fairey has demonstrated the entrepreneurial skill to create a true factory, producing posters daily (in various editions and price ranges) and merchandise. Everything is intended for sale, with the goal of funding and spreading his iconography worldwide. His works are loosely inspired by interwar political posters (often created by leading Dadaist or Surrealist artists), but stylistically draw heavily on Russian Constructivism and, inevitably, Pop Art.
Fairey transitioned from a well-known American artist to a global star in 2008, when reproductions of one of his posters appeared across major U.S. cities. The poster depicted Barack Obama, and its imagery contributed to the election of the president of the world’s leading political and economic power.
