Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Obey Sound & Vision”?
Artist Statement
18 x 24 inch screen print. Signed and Numbered edition of 450. $45. A portion of the edition previously sold at the Sound and Vision opening in London on 10/20/12. Limited numbers available. Limit 1 per person/household. Release date: 10/25/12 at a random time during the day between 10am and 12 noon PST.
Summary
Obey Sound & Vision is a signed and numbered 18 x 24 inch screen print released by Obey Giant in 2012 in an edition of 450, priced at $45. A portion of the edition was first sold at the Sound and Vision opening in London on October 20, 2012, before the general release on October 25, 2012. As with Fairey's wider output, the print pairs OBEY iconography with his graphic, poster-style visual language. It was limited to one per person or household, signaling a deliberately constrained release tied to a gallery event.
Why It Matters
Obey Sound & Vision sits at the intersection of Fairey's exhibition practice and his print-release machine, having debuted at a London gallery opening before reaching the broader collector base online. That dual life, a gallery object first and a public-facing print second, is characteristic of how Fairey extends a show's reach and rewards both in-person attendees and remote collectors. The edition of 450 is mid-sized for his work of this period, large enough to be obtainable yet small enough to retain interest. The print's grounding in OBEY iconography and Fairey's signature graphic style makes it instantly legible as part of his core visual vocabulary, which is what most collectors of his work seek. Its modest original $45 price point reflects the accessible-entry model Obey Giant used to keep his work in the hands of fans rather than only speculators. For a collector building a representative survey of Fairey's 2012 releases, this print documents the exhibition-to-edition pipeline that defined much of his mid-career output and helps contextualize the consumerism-and-power themes the source attaches to the work.
Collector Perspective
This print appeals to collectors who focus on Fairey's OBEY iconography and on works tied to specific gallery exhibitions, in this case the London Sound and Vision opening. At an original $45 with an edition of 450, it was positioned as an accessible entry point, attractive to newer collectors and to fans wanting an event-linked piece without large-format pricing. Its 18 x 24 inch format is highly displayable and frames easily alongside other standard-size Obey Giant editions. Within a collection it fits naturally next to other 2012 screen prints and OBEY-branded works, helping build a coherent run of Fairey's poster-scale output from that year. The one-per-household limit at release suggests fans, rather than bulk buyers, secured most copies.
Historical Context
Released in 2012, this print belongs to a prolific stretch of Fairey's career in which Obey Giant paired gallery exhibitions with timed online print drops. The Sound and Vision show in London exemplifies how Fairey used international gallery openings to seed editions before wider release. By this point his OBEY iconography, rooted in the late-1980s sticker campaign and the Andre the Giant image, had matured into a recognizable global brand that anchored both his fine-art and commercial output. The work's consumerism-and-power theme, noted in the source, aligns with Fairey's long-running interrogation of imagery, branding, and obedience. The edition of 450 and accessible price reflect the standard Obey Giant release model of the era rather than a one-off rarity.
FAQ
What are the size and edition details of Obey Sound & Vision?
It is an 18 x 24 inch screen print, signed and numbered in an edition of 450, published by Obey Giant in 2012. It was originally priced at $45 with a limit of one per person or household, making it a mid-sized, accessible release for its period.
Where did this print first appear?
A portion of the edition was previously sold at the Sound and Vision opening in London on October 20, 2012. The general online release followed on October 25, 2012, at a random time during the day between 10am and 12 noon Pacific Standard Time.
Is this print signed and numbered?
Yes. The source describes it as a signed and numbered edition of 450, consistent with Obey Giant's standard practice for screen prints of this period.
What themes does the work engage?
The source identifies its primary theme as collaborations and pop culture and its secondary theme as consumerism and power, consistent with Fairey's ongoing use of OBEY iconography to comment on imagery, branding, and influence.
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.