Obey: E pluribus venom - Tapa dura

'Fairey, a former skate rat from South Carolina, has become one of the most recognisable artists in America, bridging the gap between populist street works and blue-chip fine art with his agitprop murals and screen-print provocations.' --GQ Magazine - Men of the Year 2008

The red and blue stencilled portrait of President Elect Obama by street artist Shepard Fairey, which became the central image of the election campaign, has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC for its collection. It is the first portrait of the new president to enter the national collection. --The Art Newspaper, 7th Jan 2009

What the panel said: This poster demostrates the power of communicating ideas and aspirations from grass-root level. Just as the presidential candidate's campaign speeches recaptured the lost art of oratory, so this poster breathed new life into a form that had lost its purpose. Fairey's poster came not from a marketing campaign, but as a self initiated fund raising campaign. --The artist Shepard Fairey has won the Brit Insurance Design Award 2009 for his iconic Obama campaign poster

E Pluribus Venom collects a large body of work produced by Shepard Fairey and presented at the Jonathan Levine Gallery during his massive exhibition in the summer of 2007. The title, which translates Out of many, poison is derived from E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one) an early motto adopted by the U.S. Government which appears on U.S. currency. The artists thesis is that many becoming one, or a loss of power and influence of the individual in favor of homogeny is a symptom of a society in decline. The book is comprised of artworks designed to question the symbols and methods of the American machine and American dream and also celebrate those who oppose blind nationalism and war. Some of Faireys works use currency motifs or a Norman Rockwell aesthetic to employ the graphic language of the subjects they critique. Other works use a blend of Art Nouveau, hippie, and revolutionary propaganda styles to celebrate subjects advocating peace.