Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Soldier Star”?
Artist Statement
SOLDIER STAR Screen Print 18 x 24 inches Edition of 100
Summary
Soldier Star is a 1997 screen print by Shepard Fairey, published by Obey Giant in a First Edition of 100, measuring 18 x 24 inches on paper. The record categorizes it under collaborations/pop culture with secondary OBEY iconography, indicating the design pairs a soldier motif with Fairey's OBEY star device. As an edition of 100 from his late-1990s studio output, it sits among the early Obey Giant screen prints that established the project's visual vocabulary. The source provides minimal descriptive detail beyond title, medium, dimensions, and edition size.
Why It Matters
Soldier Star belongs to the dense run of 1997 Obey Giant screen prints that built out Fairey's early iconographic system, combining appropriated imagery with the OBEY star. The record's pairing of a soldier subject with OBEY iconography reflects the period's strategy of layering propaganda-style figures onto Fairey's own brand mark, a method central to how the OBEY project trained viewers to read the star as authority. With an edition of just 100, it is a comparatively limited early piece, and its scarcity follows directly from that small print run rather than from its age. For collectors building a chronological view of Fairey's development, prints like this document the moment the studio was rapidly generating editioned variations on military, political, and pop-culture figures. Because the source description is sparse, deeper interpretation of the imagery should stay cautious: what is firmly supported is the date, the medium, the 18 x 24 format, and the edition of 100. Its significance is best framed as part of a cohort rather than as a singular landmark, and its appeal rests on completeness within an early-OBEY collection and the limited edition size.
Collector Perspective
Soldier Star suits collectors assembling Fairey's 1997 Obey Giant editions and those drawn to the early military and propaganda motifs paired with the OBEY star. With only 100 in the edition, it is a relatively scarce early piece that anchors well next to its contemporaries from the same year. The 18 x 24 format frames easily and groups cleanly in a wall of early OBEY prints. Buyers should note the source is thin on imagery detail, so the edition size and date are the dependable selling points. It fits a chronological collection focused on how Fairey's iconography emerged in the late 1990s.
Historical Context
Dated 1997 and published by Obey Giant in an edition of 100, Soldier Star sits in Fairey's early studio-edition era, when the OBEY campaign was generating a rapid series of screen prints that fused appropriated figures with the OBEY star. The record's secondary OBEY iconography tag places it within that defining strategy of branding authority onto borrowed imagery. It belongs to the same 1997 cluster as other Obey Giant prints in its related set, reflecting a year of prolific output that established the visual language Fairey would carry forward. As a small-edition early work, it documents the formative period more than any single later milestone.
FAQ
What is Soldier Star?
Soldier Star is a 1997 screen print by Shepard Fairey, published by Obey Giant. It measures 18 x 24 inches on paper and was issued in a First Edition of 100, combining a soldier motif with Fairey's OBEY star iconography per the record.
How large is the edition?
The record lists a First Edition of 100, with 100 noted as the number in the edition. That makes it a comparatively limited early Obey Giant print from 1997.
What are its dimensions and medium?
It is a screen print on paper measuring 18 inches wide by 24 inches high, published by Obey Giant in 1997.
How does it relate to Fairey's other 1997 prints?
It belongs to a cluster of 1997 Obey Giant screen prints, many in editions of 100, that built out the early OBEY iconography by pairing appropriated figures with the OBEY star.
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.