Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “High Flyin' Bird”?
Artist Statement
Medium: screen print, Size: 18 x 24 inch, Signed and numbered, Edition: Only 250 available due to the first 200 being part of the Americana box sets, which already sold out. Price: $ 55 Release date: October 4 2012, at a random time during the day (PST).
Summary
High Flyin' Bird is a 2012 screen print published by Obey Giant, signed and numbered, measuring 18 x 24 inches. Per the source, only 250 were available because the first 200 of the edition were part of the Americana box sets, which had already sold out, and the print was priced at $55. It was released on October 4, 2012, at a random time during the day Pacific time, as part of Fairey's Americana folk-song print cycle.
Why It Matters
High Flyin' Bird extends Fairey's Americana suite, taking its title from a folk-song standard and contributing another sheet to his sustained 2012 engagement with traditional American music. As with its companion prints, the first 200 of the edition were absorbed into the Americana box sets, leaving only 250 available individually, so the standalone print is meaningfully tighter in supply than a typical Obey edition. That edition structure ties the work directly to the larger collectible project and to the album-driven concept behind it. Released at an accessible $55 with the staggered timed-drop format that characterized the suite, it was positioned for broad reach within an enthusiastic collector base. Within Fairey's catalog, High Flyin' Bird matters as a coherent part of an interconnected song-print series rather than a standalone statement, reinforcing the breadth and thematic unity of the Americana cycle and his recurring practice of building print families around a single musical source.
Collector Perspective
High Flyin' Bird suits Americana-cycle and folk-music collectors who want to assemble the song-print series, and its limited individual availability of 250 gives it added appeal for those tracking the suite's tighter standalone runs. At a $55 release price it sits in an accessible tier, making it approachable for collectors building a themed group. Its box-set linkage provides provenance within the project, and it displays well in a grid alongside the other 2012 song-titled prints. As one of several interconnected releases, it is best appreciated as part of a larger Americana grouping rather than in isolation.
Historical Context
Released in early October 2012 by Obey Giant, High Flyin' Bird is part of Fairey's Americana project tied to the Neil Young and Crazy Horse album of reworked traditional songs. The title reflects the folk-song repertoire the project drew on, and the edition structure, with the first 200 going into the now-sold-out box sets, mirrors the interconnected release strategy across the suite. Within Fairey's arc, this period shows his method of issuing staggered, timed-drop screen prints in editions of several hundred, each tied to a song and to the larger collectible whole, during one of his most prolific music-driven stretches.
FAQ
How many of High Flyin' Bird were available individually?
Only 250 were available individually because the first 200 of the edition were part of the Americana box sets, which had already sold out, per the source record.
What are the medium and size?
It is an 18 x 24 inch signed and numbered screen print published by Obey Giant in 2012.
When and how was it released?
It was released on October 4, 2012, at a random time during the day Pacific time, following the staggered timed-drop pattern of the Americana print suite.
What was the price?
The source record lists a release price of $55 for this print.
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.