No End In Sight For Shepard Fairey

This past Friday, ANIMAL reported that Shepard Fairey could be legally blind by the end of the year from complications due to diabetes according to a very well placed source—who refuses to back down from their story. Reached by phone yesterday, Shepard Fairey vehemently denied that he’s losing his vision, but did openly admit to having lots of past vision problems, even as recent as last June, right around the time he was readying his “E Pluribus Venom” exhibit at Jonathan LeVine Gallery, “[W]hen I was in NY last summer for my show at Jonathan’s, I just had a bleed in my right eye and the whole time I was working on that show I only had partial vision in my right eye. But, I was still able to work, I could still paint and cut, and do what I need to do,” said Fairey. The show, which featured over 150 pieces, all sold out according to LeVine.

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Is This The End Of Shepard Fairey?

Shepard Fairey, the 38-year-old street artist who has garnered mainstream attention recently thanks to the “Progress” and “Hope” posters he designed for Barack Obama’s campaign, is rapidly losing his vision due to a lifelong battle with diabetes. According to one source close to Fairey, he could be legally blind by the end of the year.
“That’s why he’s having so many gallery shows and making so many prints,” the source, who requested anonymity, said. “The Faireys are trying to pump out as much artwork as they can before he can’t see anymore — time is running out.”
Before his Obama work, Fairey was best known for littering countless urban landscapes with his ‘Andre the Giant Has A Posse’ wheatpastings and and has been compared to a modern-day Andy Warhol by many in the contemporary art world.

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