The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston should have a hit on its hands with "Shepard Fairey: Supply and Demand," to judge by the turnout for this morning's press preview. Several camera crews, a horde of still photographers and an unusually large crowd of print and pixel reporters turned up - the kind of turnout that usually greets some MFA crowd-pleaser, although this group was younger than usual and more likely to be wearing black. The ICA knows it has grabbed a chunk of the zeitgeist, too, to judge by the fact that the exhibit opens Feb. 6 and runs all the way through Aug. 16, with 250 works occupying much of the museum's top floor.
Top: Fairey and curator Pedro Alonzo. Left, Fairey poses
for the Herald. Below: Obey Giant atop the ICA.
Photos © 2009 Joel Brown all rights reserved
In this very blue state, expect a lot of museum newbies to turn out for the exhibit, because it includes Fairey's iconic "Obama Hope" poster, a meme so contagious it made the cover of Time. Hosting Fairey's first solo exhibit, a career retrospective no less, would have been a good bet anyway, but the ICA got lucky. It started planning "Supply and Demand" a year and a half ago, months before Fairey did his Obama thang. Given the economy and the poisonous atmosphere for non-profits of all types - Exhibit A, Brandeis - it's a fortuitous turn of events for the ICA, which vastly expanded its ambitions with the opening of its waterfront museum in Dec. 2006. "Supply and Demand" seems likely to turn out the museum's largest crowds ever and firm up its place in the community. "Your lips to God's ears," ICA chief curator Nicholas Baume told me this morning, after genially avoiding a prediction.
In a town with an historically stodgy museum community, the Fairey show is taking it to the street in a new way. The artist, not yet 40, turned up on Tuesday in retro Converse and a Clash t-shirt; among this weekend's opening festivities is Friday night's Experiment party, where he'll be manning the DJ booth until midnight. Of course if this was New York or Miami or L.A., he'd start spinning tunes at midnight, but ... walk before we can run, right?
More importantly, the exhibit breaks out to honor Fairey's history as a commando artist. He's been slapping up posters and stickers in spots across the city. One of his Obey Giant images now graces the south side of the museum, which is often criticized as the one dull, featureless side of the Diller + Scofidio building. Exhibition curator Pedro Alonzo said that he prefers coming on Fairey's street art by surprise, but there is a map to the works on the ICA's web site if you're interested. And on May 17, Alonzo will lead a bicycle tour. Don't hold your breath for Malcolm Rogers to do that for the next MFA blockbuster.
Oh, and what about the art, you ask?
For some, it will be a generational question. Fairey proudly wears the street artist label, and in its guerilla appeal, his method is close to the graffiti taggers who first burst on the art scene in the 1980s. The ICA show includes both handcut rubyliths and the posters and stickers reproduced from them after a bit of Photoshopping. "Is the show also going to include the Xerox machine he used to make his 'art'?" snarked one over-40 friend of mine, the single quotes audible in his tone. "Obama Hope" is, in fact, perhaps the most conventionally beautiful and painterly image in the show, which no doubt contributed to the speed with which it spread across our culture.
But those who scoff at Andy Warhol aren't likely to turn up at the ICA, anyway, unless someone drags them there to have their picture taken in front of "Obama Hope." And for those more comfortable with DIY art that remixes familiar media tropes to comment on advertising, propaganda and our consumer culture, Fairey's mass-produced posters are compelling. Iconography of Andre the Giant, the Obey star and the peace fingers lurk throughout the show, foreground and background. It's easy to see how Soviet posters of courageous proletarians influenced "Obama Hope," and Fairey's work around the Iraq war is visually arresting and reminiscent of Chinese and Vietnamese propaganda from the '60s. It's also suprisingly beautiful itself, colorful and collagey.
Let's call this the end of Part One of our ICA visit. In Part Two: Fairey and Alonzo talk about his art, about the roots of his Obey series in a cult sci fi flick, and the details of his Obama odyssey.
I know and love Shepard. Shame on the people who critisize him. The President of the US is strongly considering helping the arts and artists because Shep has made people aware of important issues. Because I protested in favor of woman's and workers rights... Because I protested against war... am I a plagerist because someone else protested before I did. If your child draws a Unicorn, is he or she a plagerist because he or she copied a picture and put rainbows and stars on it. Love, as I do, or Hate and be Jealous as some do, but Shep's intentions are pure - to promote communication and discussion. Maybe if we did more of what Shep is promoting, then the world will be a better place. Peace, Love, Health and Happiness to all. Shep and Amanda may the Posse always be with you.
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