Born Charleston, SC 1970
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA
EDUCATION
1991 B.A. Rhode Island School of Design
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 White walls, SF, CA (sept 08)
2007 Imperfect Union, Merry Karnowsky Gallery, LA, CA
Nineteeneightfouria, Stolen Space, London
E pluribus venom, Jonathan LeVine Gallery, SF, CA
2006 Wax Poetics Gallery, Burbank CA
White Walls Gallery, San Francisco CA
Maxalot Gallery, Barcelona, Spain
Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris, France
2005 EXIT Gallery, Hong Kong, China
DC Gallery, Denver, CO
Hard Rock Café Gallery, Orlando, FL
Toyroom Gallery, Sacramento, CA
OX-OP Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
Voice 1156 Gallery, San Diego, CA
Merry Karnosky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Black Floor Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2004 Kerkchof Gallery, UCLA, CA
The Ad Shop, Brussels, Belgium
Toy Room Gallery, Sacramento, CA
V-1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Kantor Gallery Window, New York, NY
Shooting Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Gallery Katz, Boston, MA
Martin Mcintosh Outer Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Merry Karnowsky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Paragraph Gallery, Kansas City, MO
2003 La Base, Paris, France
Perhelion Arts, Phoenix, AZ
SIXSPACE, Los Angeles, CA
CPOP, Detroit, MI
Think Tank, Colorado
RED FIVE, San Francisco, CA
Kantor Gallery Window, New York, NY
Milk, San Francisco, CA
2002 The Emporium Gallery, Encinitas, CA
1300 Gallery, Cleveland
Boston Museum, MA
Dept/Fumiya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
2001 Hallsey Gallery, College of Charleston, SC
Tin Man Alley Gallery, New Hope, PA
2000 Capsule, Birmingham, UK
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006 OXOP Gallery, Minneapolis, MN
New Art Center, Newtonville, MA
Galerie de Jour Anges B, Paris, France
2005 Hillwood Art Museum, Brookville, NY
Voice 1156 Gallery, San Diego, CA
P4 Space, Milan, Italy
Copro Nason Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Beautiful Losers, Costa Mesa, CA
Misanthropy Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Galerie de Jour Agnes B, Paris, France
Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris, France
Dyezu Experiment, Tokyo, Japan
Mendenhall Sobieski Gallery, Pasadena, CA
DC Gallery, Denver, CO
V1 Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Project Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Track 16 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2004 Paul Rodgers 9W Gallery, New York, NY
Beautiful Losers, CAC, Cincinnati, OH
Ducky Waddles Emporium, Encinitas, CA
Streetwise 3, Santa Monica, CA
Beautiful Losers, Yerba Buena, San Francisco
QEEROPHONIC, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, CA
Carlos Irizarry Gallery, San Juan, Puerto Rico
OBJEX Artspace, Miami, FL
2003 Quite Riot, Long Beach, CA
Session the Bowl, Deitch Projects
Design Is Kinky Conference, Sidney, Australia
Back Jumps Exhibition, Berlin, Germany
2002 Max Fish, New York, NY
Merry Karnowski Gallery, Hollywood, CA
Day by Day Gallery, Richmond, VA
The Blue Cube, Columbus, OH
Seven Degrees Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
Apart Gallery, London, UK
Modart, CA
2001 CPOP Gallery, Detroit, MI
Levi's Vortex Gallery
Bush Gallery, Providence, RI
MOCA DC, Wash DC
In 1992, while still an illustration student at RISD, Fairey started his first business venture, Alternate Graphics, to showcase his emerging design and silkscreen printing talents. He created stickers, t-shirts, skateboards, and posters which were all available via black and white mail order catalogs that he distributed. He also did small commercial printing jobs for clients to help cover some of his expenses. In 1994, Helen Stickler created a documentary film, Andre the Giant Has a Posse, that focused on Fairey and the growing phenomenon of his subversive stickers and posters. By 1995, Fairey had two or three full time employees, two of whom were long time friends from Charleston, whom he had known through his many years of skateboarding. During this time, he also created a small sister brand, Subliminal Projects, with Blaize Blouin, and released several skateboard and poster designs using this moniker. Fairey created a skateboard video, ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder), that showcased the small group of skateboarders that he sponsored via Alternate Graphics.
In 1996, Fairey moved from Providence, RI, to San Diego, CA, to partner with Andy Howell in Giant Distribution. Shortly thereafter, Fairey partnered up with Dave Kinsey, Phillip De Wolff, and Howell to form First Bureau of Imagery, FBI, a branding, marketing and design firm targeting the emerging action sports market. In 1999, FBI was dissolved and Fairey, Kinsey, and De Wolff formed BLK/MRKT, another branding, marketing, and design firm. During this time, Fairey met his future wife, Amanda Ayala, who began working with him. In 2001, the BLK/MRKT offices were moved from San Diego to Los Angeles and expanded to include a small art gallery. De Wolff's partnership was purchased by Fairey and Kinsey, who became the sole propietors of the operation, now doing business from an office in the historic Wiltern building located in Koreatown. In 2003, Fairey and Kinsey decided to make a professional split; Fairey kept the location and most of the employees, renamed his agency Studio Number One [1], and renamed the art gallery Subliminal Projects [2]. Kinsey took the name BLK/MRKT and its gallery, and relocated it to Culver City, CA, where it is still in operation. In 2004, Fairey teamed up with long time friend Roger Gastman to create a quarterly publication, Swindle. The magazine documents pop culture, fashion, and music, and each issue is released in both soft cover and hard cover. In 2006, Fairey released a comprehensive, hard cover monograph, Supply and Demand, that documents much of his personal and professional design work. The entire book was designed in-house at Studio Number One and it is published by Ginko Press. It is currently in its third edition.
Fairey married Amanda Ayala in December of 2001 in Charleston, SC. In June 2005 Amanda gave birth to their daughter Vivienne, named after punk fashion icon, Vivienne Westwood.
For more information visit the Obey site: http://obeygiant.com/ or the unofficial but very good and updated: http://www.thegiant.org/
