Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “This Is Your Church”?
Artist Statement
THIS IS YOUR CHURCH Screen Print 18 x 24 inches Edition of 350 $35
Summary
This Is Your Church is a 2007 Shepard Fairey screen print published by Obey Giant in a first edition of 350, measuring 18 x 24 inches and released July 31, 2007 at $35. The title equates consumer or media institutions with religious devotion, extending Fairey's critique of consumerism and the systems that command public obedience. It is rendered in his bold, propaganda-inspired graphic style with the flat color and poster logic characteristic of his OBEY editions.
Why It Matters
This Is Your Church sharpens Fairey's long-running critique of consumerism by framing commercial or media institutions as objects of worship. The title's provocation, that consumption has become a kind of religion, fits squarely within his corporate-critique program and his habit of borrowing the visual and rhetorical authority of propaganda. As a first edition of 350 at a $35 original release price, it is an accessible, broadly collectible work from his prolific mid-2000s period, sharing format and scale with many companion Obey Giant prints. The theme links it forward to later works that revisit the same idea of consumption-as-faith, showing the continuity of Fairey's preoccupations across years. For a Gauntlet Gallery collector, the print offers a pointed conceptual statement delivered in Fairey's instantly recognizable graphic idiom, at the more attainable end of his catalog. It documents how he uses loaded, almost satirical titling to turn an ordinary screen print into a piece of cultural commentary, reinforcing the consistency of his message during the years just before his 2008 mainstream breakthrough.
Collector Perspective
This print appeals to collectors drawn to Fairey's anti-consumerism and corporate-critique messaging and to his use of provocative, satirical titles. At an edition of 350 and an accessible original price, it is an approachable mid-2000s acquisition that frames easily in its standard 18 x 24 inch format. It groups naturally with other 2006-2007 Obey Giant screen prints and connects thematically to later consumption-critique works, making it a useful node in a collection organized around Fairey's ideas rather than just his imagery. Collectors who enjoy work that doubles as cultural commentary will find its concept especially engaging.
Historical Context
Released July 31, 2007, This Is Your Church belongs to Fairey's Posters and Propaganda era and exemplifies his steady mid-2000s output of mid-sized, thematically pointed screen prints. The work's framing of consumption as a form of worship continues a critique he developed across many editions and would return to in later prints on the same theme. Its 18 x 24 inch format and first edition of 350 align it with the bulk of his Obey Giant releases from this window. Issued about a year before the 2008 Obama HOPE poster, it captures Fairey applying propaganda-style rhetoric to consumer culture during the period that consolidated his identity as a politically engaged graphic artist.
FAQ
What does the title mean?
This Is Your Church equates consumer and media institutions with religious devotion, suggesting consumption has become a kind of worship. The provocation fits Fairey's broader critique of corporate power and his habit of borrowing propaganda-style rhetoric.
What is the edition size and price?
It is a first edition of 350, released on July 31, 2007 at an original price of $35. That accessible price and mid-sized edition were typical of Fairey's Obey Giant screen prints in this prolific period.
Does this theme appear elsewhere in Fairey's work?
Yes. Fairey returns to the idea of consumption as religion in later prints, including a 2017 work titled Church Of Consumption. This shows the continuity of his anti-consumerist commentary across many years of his catalog.
What are the dimensions and medium?
The work is a screen print measuring 18 x 24 inches, Fairey's standard format in this era. Screen printing gives it the flat, bold, poster-style color that defines his OBEY editions and makes it easy to frame and 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.