Shepard Fairey and his famed Obama portrait

Today, Shepard Fairey, the once co-founder of BLK/MRKT Inc. (1997-2003) – which worked with high-brow clients like Pepsi, Hasbro, and Netscape – is so popular from his HOPE portrait of Barack Obama that he’s walking door to door at Deitch Projects in New York, searching for building owners that will premiss him to use their exterior wall-space for his exhibition this May.

This is a new relatively new concept to this contemporary artist, who admits to being arrested, getting locked up overnight, and a sentencing of two years probation for his past (illicitly performed) building pastings, which he accomplished long before a retrospective at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Boston

And, while many aren’t too keen on the artist’s vision, he tries his best to offer the building owners a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to contribute to the enhancement of the urban landscape, and to experience art as a part of the current OBEY phenomenon. Even though the over-sized stickers could remain for years to come, several cities have already granted the urban artist permission to paste in Boston, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. Now, as May rolls around the corner, millions of Shepard Fairey fans are hoping to see the newest exhibition of modern-day artistic talent.

Perhaps Fairey should bring Obama for some assistance; after all, he did get a lot out of the famed portrait.