Shepard Fairey may have made images that were used for the election of Barack Obama in 2008, it does not seem to have altered his freedom of expression. On the walls of the S16 gallery, in Westmount, where he presents a solo exhibition, his paintings and his serigraphs continue to denounce police brutality, systemic corruption in the United States, and to promote peace and justice in the world.
peace and justice, this is precisely the title of this series of a hundred images that make up the exhibition. Passing through Montreal, the street artist (street art) also painted a mural, boulevard Saint-Laurent, for the 10e edition of the Mural Festival.
street art
It is precisely because he wanted to make art accessible to as many people as possible, and at the same time carrying messages, that Shepard Fairey, originally from California, chose street art to make his first marks. From the start, he also used the name Obey, which he also gave to a clothing line.
“Obey, to obey, it makes you think about the principles you obey, but also about everything you obey without realizing it,” he said in an interview. However revolted he is, he continues to advocate that “violence is a weakness”. “I experience a lot of anger, but I don’t channel my anger into my art,” he says.
A skateboard enthusiast, he first used an image depicting the face of wrestler André le Géant (André the Giant) to make his mark. “At the beginning, it was like a joke between amateurs of skateboard “, he said in an interview. “Like an acronym no one really understood. »
Then, he has fun putting his stickers in the most improbable places, to provoke reflection. “I wanted people to say to themselves: this image is out of place. So what belongs here: brand images, government messages…”
I experience a lot of anger, but I don’t channel my anger into my art
In 2008, he drew a portrait of Obama on which he wrote Hope (Hope). The future president then orders some drawings from him to illustrate his campaign. Obey’s career is launched. “But the first portrait was unofficial. I had never met him,” he said.
America is bad
Today, Shepard Fairey finds that America is doing “very badly”, in particular because of endemic racism and the threat of a rollback of the right to abortion. “Racism was there before, but it was less obvious, now people are expressing it,” he says. If he disagrees with several international policies defended by Obama, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan, he defends his fight for the reform of the health system, for example.
From candor to sarcasm, from images of flowers with guns to that of ferocious dog-walking policemen, his posters are always protesting.
For Shepard Fairey, street art, especially when neat, is ideal for conveying a meaningful message. “It’s much more powerful than the comments that people write very quickly on social networks. For him, this free expression of ideas through art, if it clearly does not settle everything, has therapeutic effects.
This exhibition, Adam Vieira, owner of the S16 gallery with Carlo de Luca, has been hoping for ten years, since Shepard Fairey is one of those who influenced him as a street artist.
Since he founded his gallery, Adam Vieira, whose artist name is Whatisadam, has focused on so-called “legal” art, since his head is now recognizable.
“It’s easier to travel,” he says. He likes to draw inspiration from traditional Quebec objects, such as canned maple syrup, for example, to transform them into pop art.