Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “11th Hour (First Edition)”?
Artist Statement
18 x 24 inch Screen Print Signed Edition of 350. Release Date: 08/14/2007 Profits from this print go towards the 11th Hour Campaign! I wanted to write a long explanation of why I’m doing this print to help promote the movie The 11th Hour and to generate funds for the 11thhouraction.com. Unfortunately, I’m short on time and so is planet Earth as we know it. Basically the film expands on the Earth crisis explained in An Inconvenient Truth. Global warming, deforestation, pollution, dependence on petroleum, and over-population. The film puts these issues in frightening perspective but also shows there are solutions. Skip the next Rob Sneider movie and to see The 11th Hour and you’ll be both avoiding pollution and educating yourself about it. If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for MY kid! Thanks -Shepard
Summary
11th Hour is a 2007 Shepard Fairey screen print published by Obey Giant in a signed first edition of 350, measuring 18 x 24 inches and released August 14, 2007 at $35. Fairey made it to promote the environmental film The 11th Hour and to raise funds for the 11th Hour Campaign at 11thhouraction.com. In his accompanying statement he ties the print to the film's themes of global warming, deforestation, pollution, petroleum dependence, and over-population, framing it as a call to action on the planetary crisis.
Why It Matters
11th Hour is one of the clearer examples of Fairey using his art directly for cause-based fundraising and environmental advocacy. By his own statement, profits from the print went toward the 11th Hour Campaign, and the work was made to promote the documentary The 11th Hour, which expanded on the climate crisis outlined in An Inconvenient Truth. That explicit fundraising purpose and the artist's personal, urgent note, ending with a plea to act for his own child, give the print unusual documentary weight among his 2007 releases. Thematically it marks a pronounced engagement with environmental issues, naming global warming, deforestation, pollution, petroleum dependence, and over-population, and it links forward to a long line of climate-focused works Fairey would continue producing for years. As a signed first edition of 350 at $35, it remained accessible while carrying a charitable mission. For a Gauntlet Gallery collector, it stands out as both an environmental statement piece and a record of Fairey's activism-through-art, anchoring an environmental sub-collection alongside his later climate prints.
Collector Perspective
This print is a natural anchor for collectors building an environmental or activist Fairey sub-collection. Its documented connection to the film The 11th Hour and its fundraising mission give it a cause-based story that many collectors value, and Fairey's personal statement adds a human dimension. As a signed first edition of 350 at an accessible original price, it combines limited supply with attainability. The standard 18 x 24 inch format makes it easy to frame and to display alongside Fairey's later climate-themed prints, where it works as an early reference point showing his environmental engagement predating much of his better-known activist output.
Historical Context
Released August 14, 2007, 11th Hour sits at the intersection of Fairey's Posters and Propaganda era and his developing environmental advocacy. Created to promote the documentary The 11th Hour and to fund the associated campaign, it shows Fairey channeling his work toward a specific cause at a moment when public attention to climate change was rising in the wake of An Inconvenient Truth. The print names the era's defining ecological concerns, global warming, deforestation, pollution, oil dependence, and over-population, and prefigures the sustained stream of climate-focused works Fairey would produce in the years that followed. It arrives roughly a year before the 2008 Obama HOPE poster, marking him as an artist already comfortable lending his graphic voice to urgent social causes.
FAQ
What cause does this print support?
Fairey created 11th Hour to promote the documentary The 11th Hour and to raise funds for the 11th Hour Campaign at 11thhouraction.com. By his own statement, profits from the print went toward that campaign, making it an explicit example of his activism through art.
Is this print signed, and how large is the edition?
It is a signed first edition of 350, released on August 14, 2007 at an original price of $35. The signed, limited run combined with the charitable purpose distinguishes it among Fairey's 2007 screen prints.
What environmental issues does it address?
In his accompanying note, Fairey ties the print to the film's themes of global warming, deforestation, pollution, dependence on petroleum, and over-population, framing it as both a warning about the planetary crisis and a call to action.
How does it fit Fairey's broader work?
It is an early, clear marker of Fairey's environmental advocacy and connects to a long line of later climate-focused prints. As such, it serves as a reference point for collectors tracing his ecological engagement over time.
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.