In association with our blow by blow coverage of Shepard Fairey’s landmark “May Day” show that capped off a bittersweet goodbye to the now closed Deitch Projects, we thought it would be a good time to bring you a recap of the street action conducted by Shep and his industrious Obey crew. In addition to creating the high profile and massive mural at the corner of Houston & Bowery, Shep invited AM to tag along on two more “legal” endeavors. The first was the parking lot on the corner of Grand & Wooster where Mr. Fairey pasted up a very large image of “Defiant Youth”. This image was actually Shep’s interpretation of Martha Cooper’s famous photograph. Coincidentally Martha was on hand to “shoot Shepard putting up an image of her image”. It all comes full circle right?
The other mural was on the corner of Cooper Square Hotel on the corner of 5th & Bowery. The tremendous four story high “Buddist Monk” (see the one in San Diego) was a more of a challenge. With crazy winds and rush hour obstacles, Shepard and crew worked around the clock (2 days!) to build this work of art, layer by painstaking layer. The result of course was magnificent.
Check out all the action after the jump.