Obedece - Shepard Fairey (OBEY) & Gran OM - 2021 Authenticity Stamp - Offset Edition -Shepard Shepard Fairey shot to national fame as the graphic artist behind a 2008 iconic poster of Barack Obama, a portrait labeled simply "HOPE" and in a style that could be described as Andy Warhol meets Socialist Realism. Fairey, who graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992, was already well known among graffiti artists and fans, thanks to one of Fairey's early works of "guerilla" art, an impromptu stencil design based on an ad for Andre the Giant, a professional wrestler. Fairey made stickers of the image in the late '80s, along with the scrawl "Andre the Giant has a posse," and the image went viral, spreading far and wide through urban America, on street signs, billboards and walls. He later adapted the image and added the word "obey." Mixing left-wing politics with "appropriated" images and bold graphic design, Fairey now works as a fine artist and advertising designer, with a gallery in Los Angeles and business ventures that dip into publishing, fashion and urban sports (skateboarding).