Stout, Stout, Get it Worked Out!
Box Office Review: American Teens Are Morons
'Kick a Ginger Day' Spawned At Least 5 Attacks on Redheaded Kids
Intrepid L.A. Foodies Tackle 11-in-11 Nocturnal Challenge
Cool, Crafy, Community Event: Unique LA's Holiday Show
Opening tonight, less than an hour from now, is Shepard Fairey's Imperfect Union show at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery. The show features probably near 100 new pieces of work from Shepard, showing how truly creative and artistic he still is.
The work looks like his standard cut stencil style, but when you really get up close to his pieces, you start to see how truly great he is, actually. His pieces feature tons of layers, cutout rubylith, old stencils, and written notes. All of this builds up to create some really awesome art.
There's one room in particular, towards the middle of the gallery, which features the most impressive work. There's an installation in there as well, featuring a mock up of Shepard's work station. Scattered around it are spray cans, sheets of paper with color samples from spray paint, stencils littering the floor. I talked to Shepard briefly toward the end of the night, telling him how great this room was, and he basically said that it featured the work that really inspired the rest of the art in the show.
The show starts at 8 tonight, and goes till 11. But if you can't make it, the show runs until January 5th. No matter how you feel about his work, I suggest everyone swing by, it might just change your opinion.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Shepard Fairey is a thief and a hack. Most of his "art" is directly stolen from political artists (mostly minorities) who sacrificed a great deal in order to make art which, in their time, was both unpopular and unsupported. The artists who Fairey rips off have never seen a dime from the Fairey Empire, let alone a measly acknowledgment or credit. This has enraged many poiltical artists and activists who feel he is destroying the movement by his commodification of its imagery and history.
For a more thorough examination of Fairey and how he has made a fool of the art world see http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Obey/index.htm.
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.
First of all, Mark was NEVER at Shepard's opening (which tells one how informed you are.) Secondly, most political artists have traditionally, for hundreds of years (and if you knew anything about art you would know this) been marginalized, criticized, condemed, jailed and expelled from their own homelands for creating the art that they felt compelled to make. Fairey has done nothing of the sort. Instead he has commercialized, trivialized, commodified this generation of artists, and, in doing so. ruined the peace movement and political art altogether. Those who have sacrificed so much to make a statement (an original one, unlike Fairey who LITERALLY steals fronm other artistss) are horrified at this "radical chic." I have a feeling you are young and relatively ignorant about art. Because if you educated, you would know what the fuck you are talking about.
PS-The article Mark wrote (and may I say that I know both Mark and Shepard personally) was not only his brainchild, but a collaboration between himself and TWO OTHER VERY WELL KNOWN political artists and activists IN ADDITION TO an ART HISTORIAN (UNLIKE YOU)!!!!
Let's get past the fact that you write for shit for a moment...
Does Vallen deny that his verbose polemic (that needed an additional three writers to produce) was passed out, along with limited editions of his artwork, to Fairey show-goers in L.A.? No, of course he doesn't. Only that he wasn't there. Why? Because the packets WERE passed out in a flurry of opportunistic profile-raising. (Let's sell some canvasses! Daddy needs to buy Christmas presents!) Does he state that he picked up the phone and called Fairey for his opinion? No, of course not, he only questions how others "know" he didn't. (That would take balls!)
Vallen needs take a step away from the self-pity bong and enroll in a technique class or two. That and nd maybe remove the reference to Fairey in his not-so-short "Short Bio" (that's only 8 pages in length and drops any name he can to say, "Look! I'm SOMEBODY!!").
That would be the better way to raise his profile.
Oh, and to your quote that Fairey "ruined the peace movement and political art altogether"? You really ARE dumb, aren't you?
I don't follow art, and I'm not a collector, so I'd consider myself somewhat arbitrary... but from the outside, the campaign against Mr Fairey's 'inspiration' is pretty stunning. The side-by-side imagery speaks for itself, despite Vallen's intentions of self-promotion and perhaps jealousy.
This reminds me of when Nike ripped off Jeff Nelson's Minor Threat artwork to promote their brand...
http://www.boingboing.net/2005/06/29/minor-threat-vs-nike.html
People were outraged, because Nike is a capitalist monster dollar sign... and Minor Threat is an artistic social/political statement.
If Shepard Fairey worked for Nike, and did this from behind the guise of a Swoosh, would he still be credible? Would he still be as 'cool' as he is today? I mean, his company IS making millions of dollars worldwide, BECAUSE he is able to elegantly reproduce political art, and propaganda/activism graphics. Right?
SF is super talented, thats for sure, but can we honestly say that he is the visionary that we all thought? This entire time, I assumed his designs were born from his own disturbed eye... not from the forgotten names of old/dead movements.
This all feels pretty shady to me. HOWEVER, I see why his fans are so sensative to this. Its understandable. If I spent thousands (or even hundreds) of dollars and time with his art/clothing... I'd go down swinging with my mental and financial attachment. Who likes to see their favorite artist exposed as a half-talent? Not me. Not you. Not the 10,000 kids at that tent sale either...
Mark Vallen is a hack.
super touch has a great article about mark vallen
http://www.supertouchart.com/2009/02/02/editorial-the-medium-is-the-message-shepard-fairey-and-the-art-of-appropriation/