Jonas Wood

Jonas Wood Gagosain Exhibition Print April 29th, July 19th New York Contemporary

2019

"As I develop the work for my 30th anniversary, I'm revisiting some classic images from throughout my career and exploring alternate compositions. I felt that this reconfiguration of...

Edition Details: Year: 2014 Class: Art Print Status: Official Released: 10/16/14 Run: 376/400 Technique: Letterpress Paper: 100% Cotton Lettre Fine Art Paper Size: 10 X 13 Markings: Signed & Numbered by the artist in pencil, Shepard Fairey. Frank Shepard Fairey was born February 15, 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. Fairey's adolescence was shaped by the influences of punk-rock and skateboarding. In his teens, he began creating his own bootlegged clothing and skateboard decals featuring bands and brands he liked. Fairey’s early bootlegs were created because his generally conservative parents would not purchase the clothing he wanted. In 1986, he stumbled upon the Andre the Giant image for which he has become famous for, in a local newspaper. The image was selected when Fairey demonstrated to a friend how to make a stencil; it was modified slightly to include the meaningless caption “Andre the Giant has a Posse” and made into a sticker. The sticker was reproduced en masse and began to appear around Charleston as it spread through the skateboarding community. While the sticker had no inherent meaning, the public response varied from disregard to curiosity to out-right fear. Civic groups editorialized and theorized that the Andre image was affiliated with everything from a band to a hate group. Nevertheless, the stickers were considered vandalism and in time, Fairey would face numerous charges for defacing public property. Fairey's record includes 15 arrests as of March 2009, for defacing property as a result of his so called bombing campaigns. Fairey affixed the stickers on municipal properties nearly everywhere he went, and the Andre sticker was being seen in Boston and New York City, soon others procured the image and were encouraged to spread the campaign worldwide in the form of stickers, stencils and wheat-paste posters. Following high school, Fairey was accepted to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where, with an interest in screen printing, he majored in illustration. In 1992, while still attending RISD, Fairey started Alternate Graphics, a mail order catalog business through which he could merchandise his own t-shirts, skateboards, posters and stickers. He also took small commercial illustration jobs to help supplement his income. Shortly thereafter, the Andre the Giant Has a Posse logo was shortened simply to Obey Giant. The Obey, for which Fairey has also become synonymous, is derived from the 1988 John Carpenter film They Live. In the film, aliens who appear as human, rule the governments and economies of the world while the humans are reduced to an unwitting, hypnotized slave-class. Themes from the film continue to appear in Fairey’s work. Over time, the Andre the Giant face was modified into a more simplified and streamlined appearance, reminiscent of Russian Constructivist/Rodchenko style Soviet propaganda posters of the 20th Century. In 1994, filmmaker Helen Stickler featured Fairey and his sticker phenomenon in her documentary: Andre the Giant has a Posse. The following year, Fairey started Subliminal Projects with the late Blaize Blouin, his friend and pro-skateboarder. Subliminal Projects created and released several Obey-Giant themed posters and skateboard decks. Fairey directed a short skateboarding film featuring some of his friends through Subliminal Projects and Alternate Graphics titled A.D.D.(Attention Deficit Disorder). In 1996, Fairey moved to San Diego, California to create Giant Distribution with partner Andy Howell. Later, with Howell, Phillip De Wolff, Dave Kinsey, he formed First Bureau of Imagery (FBI), a branding, marketing and design firm established to focus on the increasingly lucrative sports market. FBI was closed in 1999 and Fairey, along with De Wolff and Kinsey created BLK/MRKT, similar to FBI. At this time, Fairey met and began working with Amanda Alaya, whom he would later marry. BLK/MRKT moved to Los Angeles in 2001. Here, they could expand and were able to incorporate a small gallery. Fairey and Kinsey eventually bought out De Wolff’s share of the partnership and by then had set up offices in the Pellissier Building (home of the historic Wiltern Theater...

This Chaos Mandala print merges two seemingly contrasting concepts and aesthetics…chaos and harmony. I have always been fascinated by the cyclical chaos of posters and graffiti accum...

"The Wall Street Public Enemy print is a critique of the culture of greed and manipulation seen on Wall Street and in the banking system. Lack of oversight from the government that i...

Nelson Mandela, The Window, Signed Limited Edition Lithograph Many people are unaware that Nelson Mandela turned his hand to art in his 80's as a way of leaving a legacy for his family. He spent time with an art tutor and learnt to draw. In 2002, when creating the The Window print, he told Anna and Laura from Belgravia Gallery of his desire to become a full time artist when he retired. This sketch depicts a view of Table Mountain through the bars of a prison cell...

Original British Railways vintage poster: York (England). Professionally linen-backed in excellent condition, ready to frame. Printer: Jordison & CO. LTD, London. Printed in Great Britain. Published by British Railways. Size is 25" x 40". Shown is the Grand Hallway in the Treasurer’s House. This vintage York - Treasurer's House British Railways poster...

An original vintage poster of Perlach Macaroni Spaghetti created by Richard Roth for the German pasta brand, Perlach in the 1940s 1. The poster features an anthropomorphic pasta man...

"Entrance to the Citadel of Cairo" is a 19th century full folio sized duotone lithograph from the Egypt and Nubia volumes of David Roberts’ large folio edi...