"Hope" Outsider Artist Sheppard Fairey Creates Obama's Visual ID
January 18, 2009
When the National Portrait Gallery announced last week that it was acquiring Shepard Fairey's iconic image of Barack Obama, it marked a curious development for the Los Angeles-based artist, previously known for his ubiquitous Andre the Giant stickers, as well as high-style agitprop poster art.
Fairey's been around for a long time, but he's always operated below the mainstream radar; his work has adorned album covers and alternative weeklies, and it has been plastered on walls and billboar