About two years ago, Skewville made a simple modification to a Shepard Fairey piece in Bushwick. It simply said “Your Ad Here.” There is no doubt that Shepard Fairey’s Icon logo is a logo for a brand, and that while it may be art and/or graffiti, it is also an advertisement for everything Obey (clothing, fine art, screenprints, a design studio…). Skewville was taking a swipe at Shepard his that piece, but now Shepard has taken the phrase “Your Ad Here” and is using it as the title for an upcoming solo show at V1 Gallery in Copenhagen. It seems nothing can escape the reach of Shepard Fairey’s appropriation, not even his critics. Of course, the flipside of “your ad here” is that Shepard Fairey began his stickering campaign as a college student and younger than I am now. He proved that anyone with balls and commitment can (eventually) advertise themselves on a tiny budget and still become a household name. So I guess that’s sort of what he’s going for. Shepard’s journey from an underground artist to a mainstream supposed sell-out is addressed in this recent interview on The Huffington Post (by the guys at Brooklyn Street Art).
Your Ad Here opens on August 5th at V1 Gallery and runs through September 3rd.
Photo by Becki_Fuller