About

Often described as a Street artist, Fairey's name first began to appear in the news for wheat pasting (adorning public spaces with the artist's own posters, affixed to walls, signs and other elements by way of a water + wheat mixture--as in wallpaper paste), sticker tagging, and the numerous accompanying arrests that now comprise his official criminal record.

Biography

February 15, 1970, Charleston, South Carolina The artist's legal name is Frank Shepard Fairey. He goes by the latter two names in professional life. Son of a physician, Shepard Fairey fell in love with making art at age 14. After graduating from the prestigious Idyllwild School of Music and the Arts in Idyllwild, California in 1988, he was accepted at the Rhode Island School of Design. (If you're not familiar with this fine institution, RISD is almost ridiculously hard to get into and enjoys a sterling reputation as a training ground for working artists.) Fairey graduated in 1992 with a B.F.A. in Illustration.