Street artist Shepard Fairey adapted “Corporate Welfare,” originally a printed work, as a mural for Life is Beautiful 2016. Perhaps best known as the creator of the Barack Obama “Hope” campaign poster and as the guy who first acknowledged that “Andre the Giant has a posse,” Fairey has been creating punky agitprop since 1989.
“Welfare” is intended as “a comment on corporate subsidy,” writes Fairey on his website (obeygiant.com). “While average Americans struggle to make ends meet, many profitable industries and corporations receive tax breaks ... due to the dangerously disproportionate influence corporations have on politics and policy.”
Conversely, Fairey’s influence on Downtown Las Vegas continues to be overwhelmingly positive. Recently, he performed a DJ set in celebration of late Clash frontman Joe Strummer’s birthday at the Punk Rock Museum. May he keep fighting the law and winning.
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