Shepard Fairey’s Latest Mural is Hot Off the Press, Artmossphere Moscow 2018

American street artist Shepard Fairey, known as OBEY, completed painting a facade of the tram depot as a part of 3rd street art biennale ARTMOSSPHERE. The famous artist came to Russia, specifically to create his first monumental painting and open a personal exhibition in the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.

Shepard Fairey, who creates socially resonant posters, including the most famous one – HOPE, which was made for the election campaign of Barack Obama, created a large-scale work in his signature style titled “Tunnel Vision”.

The work at 12, Mytnaya street, Moscow, presents the aesthetics of Russian constructivism, but in a modern colour palette.

The painting on the facade depicts a printing press against the background of the rays made in the art deco style as well as the artist’s iconic landmark – the Gear Star logo with a portrait of the French wrestler Andre Giant inside.

The inscription reads: “Art should be distributed everywhere” and symbolises the author’s personal philosophy, inspired by Vladimir Mayakovsky and Keith Haring creative works.

“I believe that the mural in a public space is just as powerful a means of influencing minds and spreading artistic ideas as the replication of my posters. Therefore, in the work there is a printing press, it symbolises, relatively speaking, the monumental propaganda in the modern sense. The work is named in an ironic way: after all, art expands, rather than narrows, our view of the world.”  Shepard Fairey

The mural precedes his first personal museum exhibition of Shepard Fairy in Russia, The Force Majeure Project, which features the works he created during the last 25 years, as well as his most recent oeuvre made specifically for the MMOMA exhibition.

The project is launched with the collaboration of the creative group ARTMOSSPHERE, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the RuArts Foundation with the support of Wunderkammern.

 

Photo Credit Vasiliy Kudryavtsev

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