Within the art world, there is a divide between gallery and urban art, between what is considered elevated art (those with the four figure and above price tags) and the rest. I had several reservations in writing this article on Shepard Fairey's exhibit at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery for numerous reasons. Firstly, his Andre the Giant tags and Obey postings are literally found above Highland, on the side of billboards for Coke or Gillette shaving cream on Santa Monica- you will even spot Andre's face over the various freeways that snake through our city. Fairey is so prevalent yet so inconspicuous that his gallery art has a duality about it that I hesitate to critique or even analyze. Every Angelino has an opinion on his work's intention and an expectation for the artist. His humble beginnings, doing what he termed as "bombing" (late night graffiti tags with stencils or posters) asked viewers to question media and provoked a greater interaction between viewer and marketer. He coined the term "Phenomenology", his work inspires the idea of "visual disobedience", and he cemented his reputation as the "God Father of Urban Art" with numerous arrests for vandalism.

The exhibit at the Karnowsky Gallery, where the majority of his pieces were sold at elevated art prices, uses the same Obey concept; all of his works had incorporated the catch phrase or stock image of a star with Andre's eyes looking out at the viewer. Instead of this being the main focus, Fairey uses his gallery platform to critique cliché social concerns; silkscreen on aluminum, stencils and mixed paper to form a little girl, very 1950's with a pony tail, looking down at a rose, which happens to be a grenade. Numerous pieces incorporates Islamic women, a happy family holding a bomb instead of a baby, a peace dove magnified- and if you look closely layered beneath are T.V Guide clippings.

His approach and final product both seem a tad oversimplified. The argument can be made that his urban Obey campaign was set to critique mass media, to challenge the western consciousness. But what then does this new exhibition strive to do? Critique the mass majority of the art world? By literally giving his work transparent two-dimensional meaning is Fairey not laughing at the pedestal on which the art world has placed him? A giant white stencil of a peace dove on mixed paper, the T.V guide transparent just beneath it- the meaning is not difficult to grasp. The recycled stock image of Obey in the lower corner makes it marketable to an audience just itching to spend five figures on a Fairey piece. The artist has created an exhibit that is inherently marketable, critiquing just enough to be loosely called a critique, and sparking further debate regarding his intentions.

Those commuters on their morning route to work on the 405, and those skateboarders and punk rockers that embraced the concept and eagerly applied to Fairey for posters or stencils so that they too could bomb, elevated Fairey into the limelight- popularizing an artist whose inconspicuousness was part of the point of his intial campaign. Fairey is incredibly self conscious of his own limitations, namely that many label him a sell out, and criticize him for using the same medium to explore cookie cutter issues, such as Darfur or the Iraq War. He is aware that his audience has made his movement what once was in resistance to mass media, a mass product of itself. There is a duality in this exhibit that I am not adequately prepared to explore. I say this because I was able to speak with Fairey for only a brief moment, which left me with more questions than answers. The prevalent question is this: can an artist straddle the divide between bombing La Brea and showcasing work at the galleries on La Brea without complicating the integrity of one or the other? Perhaps not, or maybe so, either way Fairey attempts to bridge this gap. It is ambitious of him, but whether or not he accomplishes it without compromising his work is debatable.

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Check out his exhibit at Merry Karnowsky Gallery- it will NOT be there for long, most of it is sold, and art collectors wait rarely for anyone. Hey, if I spent that much on a Fairey piece I would want my shit too. It's at 170 S La Brea near the Ralphs on 3rd Street. Lovely gallery by the way, it was my first visit and I look forward to returning for other exhibits, so check it out this holiday before we all have to go back to the grind stone! And also, as I said before, everyone has an opinion on Fairey's work I would be very interested in reading any comments. I am hopefully writing a follow up piece, that is if I can ever catch the man's ear again...
By Liska Jacobs