Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Jay Adams”?
Artist Statement
JAY ADAMS Screen Print 18 x 24 inches Edition of 300 Signed by Jay Adams, C.R. Stecyck, and Shepard Fairey
Summary
Jay Adams is a 2003 screen print published by Obey Giant in a first-edition run of 300, measuring 18 x 24 inches. The piece portrays skateboarding pioneer Jay Adams, rendered in Fairey's bold, graphic poster idiom. According to the source, the print was signed by Jay Adams, C.R. Stecyck, and Shepard Fairey, making it a collaborative portrait that bridges Fairey's interest in counterculture figures with the skate world. The image celebrates a subject drawn from pop culture rather than overt politics, treating Adams as an icon worthy of the propaganda-poster treatment Fairey uses across his portrait work.
Why It Matters
Jay Adams sits at the intersection of Fairey's portrait practice and skateboarding's outlaw mythology, a culture Fairey himself emerged from. By giving a Z-Boys skate pioneer the same heroic, graphic treatment he reserves for musicians and revolutionaries, Fairey elevates a subcultural figure into the realm of iconic portraiture. The source's note that the print carries signatures from Adams, longtime skate documentarian C.R. Stecyck, and Fairey gives it unusual collaborative weight: it is not merely a likeness but a multi-party endorsement tying together skate history and street art. For collectors, the triple-signature framing distinguishes this print from a standard portrait edition and roots it firmly in authentic skate lineage. The 300-piece first edition places it among Fairey's mid-sized early-2000s portrait runs, a period when he was building a recurring vocabulary of cultural heroes. The piece appeals to anyone who values the cross-pollination of skateboarding, music, and graphic activism that defines Fairey's broader project, and it documents his ongoing instinct to canonize figures the mainstream often overlooks.
Collector Perspective
This print draws skateboarding-history collectors, Fairey portrait completists, and fans of crossover counterculture memorabilia. The reported triple signature from Adams, Stecyck, and Fairey is a strong draw for those who prize provenance and collaborative authentication. At 18 x 24 inches it frames easily for a home, studio, or skate-shop wall, and its graphic poster style reads well grouped with other Fairey portraits of musicians and cultural figures. It fits naturally into a collection themed around subcultural icons or around Fairey's early-2000s Obey Giant portrait output. Buyers attracted to the Z-Boys and Dogtown legacy will value the direct connection to two central figures of that story.
Historical Context
Jay Adams belongs to Fairey's prolific early-2000s Obey Giant period, when he steadily issued screen-printed portraits of cultural heroes spanning music, film, and counterculture. The subject anchors the print in skateboarding's foundational Dogtown and Z-Boys era, and the involvement of C.R. Stecyck, a key chronicler of that scene, ties the work to Fairey's own roots in skate culture. This phase shows Fairey consolidating the visual language of the propaganda poster into a repeatable system for memorializing figures he admired. The 300-piece edition is typical of his portrait releases from this window, before the larger profile he would attain later in the decade.
FAQ
When was Jay Adams released and by whom?
It was released in 2003 and published by Obey Giant. The work is a screen print measuring 18 x 24 inches, produced as a first edition. It portrays the skateboarding figure Jay Adams in Shepard Fairey's graphic poster style, drawing on his pop-culture portrait vocabulary.
How large is the edition?
The print was produced in a first edition of 300, according to the source. This places it among Fairey's mid-sized early-2000s portrait runs from this period of his Obey Giant output.
Who signed this print?
The source states the print was signed by Jay Adams, C.R. Stecyck, and Shepard Fairey. That triple signature ties the work to skateboarding history and gives it collaborative provenance beyond a standard single-artist portrait.
What are the print's dimensions?
It measures 18 x 24 inches, a standard size for Fairey's early-2000s screen-printed portraits that frames easily for home or shop display.
Related Works
About the Artist
Shepard Fairey (b. 1970, Charleston, South Carolina) is an American street artist, graphic designer, and activist, and a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design. His 1989 “André the Giant Has a Posse” sticker grew into the global OBEY GIANT campaign — an ongoing experiment in propaganda, obedience, and visual culture. He reached worldwide recognition with the 2008 “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama, now held by the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Across screen prints, stencils, murals, and collage, Fairey channels propaganda aesthetics toward themes of peace, justice, environmentalism, and civil rights. His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and LACMA.