Slideshow: Chihuly: Through The Looking Glass at Museum of Fine Arts

Museum And Gallery

Inside the box

Shepard Fairey at the ICA and a preview of February's First Friday

By EVAN J. GARZA | January 14, 2009

Shepard Fairey, America’s Finest Cop

"Young people, and artists especially, respond to authenticity. And whether he's just very good at seeming authentic or whether he's really authentic, I think he has a lot of us convinced." This was a statement made by SHEPARD FAIREY in a segment for CBS Evening News regarding president-elect Barack Obama, the subject of his über-iconic "Obama Hope" poster — a piece he redesigned for Time magazine's "Person of the Year" cover. Given that the speaker is the world's best-known street artist and the creator of the popular Obey clothing line, could the same statement be made about Fairey himself? You can decide for yourself on February 6 as the ICA tries to bring the street inside the "white cube" for "SUPPLY AND DEMAND," the first museum survey of Fairey's work and a celebration of the 20th anniversary of his "Obey Giant" poster campaign. The show is organized by former ICA assistant curator Emily Moore Brouillet and guest curator Pedro Alonzo.

The openings in the South End, also on February 6, should prove to be the real "First Friday" of the winter gallery season now that the holiday dust has finally settled. "WENDY RICHMOND: PUBLIC PRIVACY," a collection of 16 cellphone videos by the artist at Carroll and Sons Gallery, continues her investigation of the relationship between people and their environment. New York–based artist KENJI FUJITA has a variety of avant-garde sculptural abstractions at Samson Projects. LAUREL SPARKS shows several handsomely crafted and strangely elegant mixed-media paintings from her new "Pleasure Dome" series at Howard Yezerski Gallery. And "JULIE MILLER: RECENT WORK," which opens next Thursday, will bring the artist's special brand of biologically inspired abstract paintings to Steven Zevitas Gallery.

If none of the aforementioned suggestions is your cup of tea, or you just want to kick it old-school on Newbury Street, hit up Alpha Gallery for a handsome new solo show by ELIZABETH LIVINGSTON. Her photo-realistic depictions of female subjects in oil, usually alone and in domestic environments, reveal vulnerability within the human condition and continue her visual journey through isolation in American suburbs. In scenes based on photographs by (and often including) Livingston herself, women are surrounded by shadows and the warm comforts of a seemingly secure setting; this makes for large works that are equally haunting and gorgeous.

"SHEPARD FAIREY: SUPPLY AND DEMAND" at Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave, Boston | February 6–August 16 | 617.478.3100 orwww.icaboston.org | "WENDY RICHMOND: PUBLIC PRIVACY" at Carroll and Sons Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston | Through February 14 | 617.482.2477 or www.carrollandsons.net | KENJI FUJITA at Samson Projects, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston | February 6–March 21 | 617.257.7717 or www.samsonprojects.com | LAUREL SPARKS at Howard Yezerski Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston | February 6–March 10 | 617.262.0550 or www.howardyezerskigallery.com | "JULIE MILLER: RECENT WORK" at Steven Zevitas Gallery, 450 Harrison Ave, Boston | January 22–February 28 | 617.778.5265 x 22 or www.stevenzevitasgallery.com | ELIZABETH LIVINGSTON at Alpha Gallery, 38 Newbury St, Boston | February 6–March 4 | 617.536.4465 or www.alphagallery.com

Shepard Fairey bombs Boston
The Massachusetts-bred street artist Shepard Fairey returned to his home-turf this month to "bomb" the Phoenix offices, conduct interviews, and unveil his latest work at the ICA.
Slideshow: Shepard Fairey, ''Supply and Demand''
Obey Giant Art
Review: Shepard Fairey + Z-Trip + Chuck D
So Shepard Fairey actually made it this time. No insane, last-minute sting operations by Boston cops lurking just off the ICA’s property line. But also: no grand dramatics, either. (Like, he totally could have parachuted through a shattered skylight. In slow motion.) Fairey just showed up and did his thing.
Vandal-in-chief
Shepard Fairey and his show "Supply and Demand" arrive at the Institute of Contemporary Art like a guerrilla general emerging from the jungle after his forces have taken the capital.
Arresting Shepard Fairey
A cynic might argue that anything that publicizes art is a good thing. Art, after all, challenges how you think — provokes thoughts, insights, emotions that otherwise might not be stirred. It also can amuse and entertain.
Photos: Shepard Fairey, Z-Trip, Chuck D at the ICA
Shepard Fairey spins at Obey Experiment REDUX at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston
Radical chic
“The gallery system relies on supply and demand, and I created a demand for my work by doing street art.”
Interview: Shepard Fairey
"Denver wasn't great because I literally had a gun pointed at my head for putting posters up at the DNC."
Year in Art: Beyond the gloom
The Boston art scene felt muted for much of 2008, with 10 galleries closing and the death of two local icons: Harriet Casdin-Silver and Jules Aarons.
Artists and beholders
I found it rather stupefying that the Phoenix proudly toted an interview with Shepard Fairey on the same front page it used to complain about artists getting the shaft by money-grubbing businesses.
Slideshow: Shepard Fairey slaps a mural on the Phoenix offices
January 22, 2009
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