Detroit police issue arrest warrant for Shepard Fairey

It now got even more difficult to buy the Shep drops. Thanks a lot f*cking detroit

Some great new Shep pieces at the current stolenspace show. Think it is in malaga, spain. 

World-renowned street artist Shepard Fairey was arrested at Los Angeles airport on Monday for crimes in Detroit as he returned to the US from a European spraycation.

He is accused of causing approximately $9,000 in damages during a visit to Detroit in May, where it is alleged he vandalized up to 14 different buildings and walls, including two city-owned properties, by pasting giant versions of his Obey artwork on to their walls.

Fairey was held overnight in custody, but later released when Detroit authorities declined to extradite him over the charges. The artist will have to return to Detroit to face the charges at a later date.

Initially invited to Detroit to take part in a project with realtor Dan Gilbert, Fairey painted murals in the city including a 185ft-high mural on One Campus Martius for Gilbert’s Bedrock Real Estate Services, as well as several other smaller pieces.

Ironically, Gilbert has actively pursued legal action against those who have defaced his property in the past. But by hosting Fairey in his town, he may have inadvertently provided the artist with others’ property as a canvas.

Fairey, 45, openly espouses his desire to continue with what he calls an “inside-outside strategy”, doing legal work whilst simultaneously carrying out illegal street pieces. He now faces two counts of malicious destruction of property, which, alongside the fines, carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail.

Fairey rose to fame with his controversial “Obey” sticker and poster campaign, recreating and distributing the image of a famous wrestling heavyweight in his 1989 André the Giant Has a Posse series. To date he has been arrested over 15 times on charges of defacing public property and has been sentenced in federal court to two years’ probation and fines of $25,000 in relation to a case brought by the Associated Press surrounding the copyright of images used for his Barack Obama “Hope” artwork, which became famous during the 2008 election campaign.



Fairey’s work now hangs in museums and galleries worldwide, most recently his largest show to date at CAC Málaga this June, where he exhibited alongside world-renowned British artists D*face and EINE. The latter was also linked to the White House when David Cameron gave one of his paintings to Obama during a traditional exchange of gifts by the heads of state.

As D*face points out: “Shepard’s work blurs the lines between vandalism and urban renewal. Many people would literally bend over backwards to have Shepard put a piece of his art onto their property, but at the same time, putting your work in the public domain without permission is vandalism, pure and simple – and thank God for that, because with that brings energy, vibrancy and life to a city.”

The fact that Fairey still continues to operate openly on both sides of the law raises interesting questions. His work is lauded in many circles and undoubtedly well respected, within both the fine art and graffiti communities – but will that cut any ice with the judge?

Detroit gallery owner Jesse Cory believes that Fairey is unlikely to be found guilty, as the city prosecutors would have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Fairey himself had committed all the acts for which he is being indicted. “Anyone can print these images and put them up – or maybe it was one of his assistants that helped with the commissioned mural. That is what makes this warrant and arrest seem like a publicity stunt to scare off others from getting up [painting graffiti] in Detroit.”

Although it is doubtful the consequences of this latest transgression are enough to stay the hand of Fairey and other artists from committing more unsanctioned artworks in the future, Detroit authorities are clearly unhappy. While urban art is a powerful tool for the gentrification of decaying neighbourhoods, clearly demonstrable in environments such as Miami’s Wynwood district, there is still resistance to the idea in less progressive communities.

D*face is quick to point out authorities’ ambivalent attitude to street art: “Shepard has an incredibly successful show and paints his largest public mural to date, and instead of celebrating the global attention that he’s brought to Detroit, they have instead decided to use him as a scapegoat for what amounts to a lazy investigation into some very minor vandalism – and I hesitate to use that word when you’re talking about posters adhered to a wall with wallpaper paste.”

Cory remains sceptical about the use of resources in so-called “art crimes”. “Our former prosecutor, and now Mayor Mike Duggan, has had it out for graffiti for the last decade and this is a continuation of that campaign. Is it the best use of police resources considering our staggering murder rate, 80,000 vacant properties and bankruptcy issues?”

Whatever the outcome of the lawsuit, Cory believes that Fairey’s reputation will be enhanced. “Shepard has a polarising reputation in the graffiti scene where purists feel that he is a sell-out, but on the other hand getting up is the game and getting over is winning. So I feel that he has succeeded on both fronts of getting up, getting paid and getting over on the elite society by having them pay him to put up large scale works that ultimately promote his brand and clothing line Obey.”

Many believe that if Fairey is found guilty, the fallout could damage Detroit as a city, still desperately in need of the financial and social regeneration symbolised by Fairey and other street artists’ work.

If the charges are not upheld, however, the message to society may have broader-reaching consequences, sending out a memo to artists that the tide really has turned and that street art has a secure space in the worldwide community.

www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/jul/10/shepard-fairey-detriot-street-art-urban-regenderation-vandalism

poor Shep

Another big fine to pay, it's just too easy to arrest and collect from $hepard.