Filed under: Feature | Tags: Andre the Giant Has a Posse, Barack Obama, Fairey Aviation Company, Politics, Rhode Island, Shepard Fairey, United States, White House
MANIFEST HOPE: THE GRASSROOTS OBAMA ART MOVEMENT
Shepard Fairey may be the most well known artist when it comes to artwork depicting the president both in his campaign for office and now throughout his elected term. Fairey, an LA-based artist, who initially became known for his “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker campaign, is now better known for his Obama “Hope” poster. Fairey attended the Rhode Island School of Design as I was growing up a rebellious teenager in Rhode Island and is thus, pretty freakin’ familiar to me.
And that is why I jumped at the chance to go see an exhibition sponsored by his company Obey and Moveon.org on my trip to D.C. The exhibition seeks to highlight the grassroots art movement which helped to propel President Obama to the White House.
Here’s a sample of what we saw.
The Obama-fied Fixie
The Obama Wire Frame
The Great Leaders
Obama Trainers
And of course the obligatory Schwarzenegger with son sighting…
For the full photostream from the event, click here or on any of the images above.
Guests were encouraged to take a picture in front of the Shepard Fairey piece which was then uploaded to politeinpublic.com for viewing and printed for the physicality of it all. Politeinpublic assembles a list of magazine quality photos and instantly uploads the finished product to the site. That said, the photos that I saw from this particular event were less high quality and more caricature. Here’s one on my favorites:
It’s amazing that one man can inspire so many. On this inauguration day, I lift my latte to the man who has re-inspired a nation to dream.










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