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Shepard Fairey's Street Cred Crushed by Wife in TMZ Interview

by Jordan Yerman | June 14, 2011 at 07:40 am

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Shepard Fairey: More Like Mr. Brainwash Than We Thought?

Shepard Fairey, the guy behind the Obey posters (and t-shirts), as well as the Obama "Hope" poster, was traveling through LAX with his wife Amanda when he was approached by a TMZ camera crew. The Shepard Fairey TMZ encounter went a little something like this:

TMZ: You know, people go out and put the posters up...do you ever do that yourself?
Amanda Fairey: A long time ago...
Shepard Fairey: What are you... don't answer stuff, please. Jesus. [...]What is your problem? You're not stupid.
Amanda Fairey (To TMZ crew): You know what, we can't really... sorry.

Shepard Fairey built his career on his phenomenology-based street art, though we know that there's a corporate element to what he does these days (for more about the shift from street to commercial art, see Exit through the Gift Shop). That said, Fairey does not want to be placed in the same league as Thierry "Mr. Brainwash" Guetta, whose art is actually made by staff and interns.

Does anyone really believe, though, that Fairey is still creeping out in the dead of night to throw up guerrilla billboards? Does anyone really think that he got where is without help from lots and lots of people?

Shepard and Amanda Fairey need to have a quick team meeting: no divulging how the sausage is made, and no berating your spouse in front of TMZ: the latter is actually more of a chump move.

Shepard Fairey is engaged in constant battles over copyright violations, either being sued by content creators for appropriating their work, or suing other artists for appropriating his.

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carolinevingdher (not verified)

at 09:54 on June 15th, 2011

Shepard is a lot like Mr. Brainwash, on many levels. That's why he gets so annoyed with Thierry in the film Exit Through the Gift Shop, especially when he is confronted with the fact that Thierry sold for 1 Million $+ of art at his first show. He accuses him of being somesort of a fraud, and belittles Thierry's fans & customers, when in fact they cater to the same market. I find it mind boggling that Jeffery Deitch would even consider Shepard's "work" to be part of the MOCA show. Obviously, Roger Gastman, who has recently been under fire for his "agenda" as co-curator, slipped his buddy in. I think thought that the insignificance of Shepard's work spoke for itself at the museum show, as none of the real street artist paid any attention to him, since they do not respect him to start with. It was quite a sad scene for him at the opening night. Also quite funny to see Shepard and Thierry give each dirty looks all night, even though they are very much the same.

john beam (not verified)

at 18:30 on June 16th, 2011

Really, Deitch is a close friend of Shepards as well as Gastman. Deitch's last show before he joined MOCA was Shepard's Mayday Show at Deitch's gallery in NYC. I also like that you are a mind reader as well. Just because you are not a fan of Shepard's work does not mean that you have to be such a hater.