Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Power And Glory (I)”?
Artist Statement
The Paul Stolper gallery is proud to announce the launch of a group of four new screen prints with foil-block by internationally renowned LA based artist Shepard Fairey. Entitled ‘Power and Glory’ this is the third project the gallery has worked on with Fairey, The set of four new works continue the artist’s investigation into contemporary America. The prints will be exhibited at the LA Art Show 15 – 19 January 2014 (Booth 622). The genesis for each print is the American Flag, an iconic and potent image that artists such as Jasper Johns’s ‘Flag’ (1954) and Peter Blake’s ‘Old Glory’ (2011) have explored as has Joe Rosenthal’s ‘Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima’ (1945) in photography. Celebrated, revered, abused, and even burnt the US flag constantly invokes passion on a grand scale. Serving initially as the ‘marking of American territory’, Adam Goodheart, Prologue of ‘1861: The Civil War Awakening’, it has now also become the calling card of the biggest consumer society in the world. Its popularity and consequently its Pop Art qualities have not been lost on Fairey who understands but also questions its ubiquitous presence. Much like advertising the incessant flying of the flag outside homes, stores, and businesses has turned it into a corporate brand identity that Fairey subverts both stylistically and conceptually. As the design of the US flag, over time, has developed to incorporate more States, so Fairey has graphically dissected the ‘Stars and Stripes’, and re-configured them into a completely new design, where the single star is the dominant central motif surrounded by seven stripes. Fairey hijacks the solitary star inserting the Obey motif, itself an international logo that questions authority. This Trojan horse effect of drawing the viewer in to the image through the use of design and colour to then spit back questions of allegiance and ownership are key to Fairey’s work, much like Jamie Reid inserting a safety-pin into the lip of the Queen. The set could just as easily have been titled ‘Whose Power and Whose Glory?’, since the piece is equal parts celebratory and cautionary because one person’s American dream is another person’s American nightmare. In ‘Power and Glory’ the richness of design is heightened by Fairey’s use, for the first time, of foil-blocking, a method whereby a metallic sheet is debossed onto the sheet of paper, using a metal etched plate, and printed after the silk screening process. The effect very cleverly mimicking the delicate design of scroll-work found on US monetary notes. Medium: Silkscreen and gold foil block print on Somerset Tub sized 410gsm. Size: 69.4 x 69.4 cm / 27.3 x 27.3 in Edition of 75. Edition 1 – 20 sold as complete set. Signed and numbered by the artist. Launch price per print: £1000 inc vat / $1500 inc CA sales tax, Launch price per set (4 prints): £3,600 inc vat / $5,400 inc CA sales tax.
Summary
Power And Glory (I) is a 2014 Shepard Fairey work combining silkscreen with gold foil-block printing on Somerset Tub-sized 410gsm paper, published by Paul Stolper Gallery. It measures 69.4 x 69.4 cm (27.3 x 27.3 inches), is signed and numbered in an edition of 75, and was the first of four prints in the Power and Glory set exhibited at the LA Art Show in January 2014. The image graphically dissects the American flag, reconfiguring the Stars and Stripes into a new design with a single dominant central star carrying the Obey motif, surrounded by seven stripes. It marked Fairey's first use of foil-blocking, which mimics the scrollwork of US currency.
Why It Matters
Power And Glory (I) is significant as a technical and conceptual milestone in Fairey's practice. It introduced foil-blocking to his work for the first time, a process in which a metallic sheet is debossed onto the paper to mimic the scrollwork found on US banknotes, directly tying the image's surface to themes of money and power. Conceptually, the print continues Fairey's interrogation of contemporary America by reworking the American flag, an image he places in dialogue with Jasper Johns and Peter Blake. By replacing the flag's stars with a single dominant Obey star, Fairey performs his signature 'Trojan horse' move: drawing viewers in with seductive design and color, then provoking questions of allegiance, ownership, and consumer branding. The gallery itself notes the set could have been titled 'Whose Power and Whose Glory?', underscoring its deliberately double-edged stance. As a larger-format, higher-priced gallery edition of just 75, produced with a prestigious London publisher, it occupies a more rarefied tier than Fairey's accessible Obey Giant drops, making it a serious collector object that bridges his street-rooted iconography with fine-art print craft.
Collector Perspective
This print targets collectors who value technically ambitious, gallery-published Fairey editions over his lower-priced Obey Giant releases. Its first-use foil-blocking, large square format, and edition of just 75 give it a fine-art presence that appeals to those building a focused collection around his Americana and consumer-power motifs. Collectors interested in the Obey iconography and flag-subversion lineage will appreciate how it reconfigures the Stars and Stripes around the central Obey star. As part of a four-print set with a print-set option, it also draws set-completists. The metallic foil rewards in-person and well-lit display, and its scale makes it a statement piece anchoring a room.
Historical Context
Released in January 2014 through Paul Stolper Gallery and exhibited at the LA Art Show, Power And Glory (I) was the third collaboration between Fairey and the London gallery. It belongs to Fairey's ongoing examination of American identity and consumer power, deploying the flag as both celebrated and contested national symbol. The work situates Fairey within an art-historical lineage of flag imagery, explicitly referencing Jasper Johns's 1954 'Flag' and Peter Blake's 2011 'Old Glory'. Its introduction of foil-blocking marks a deliberate expansion of his printmaking craft, aligning the medium with its monetary subject. The piece exemplifies how, by the mid-2010s, Fairey paired his street-derived Obey symbolism with elevated gallery production.
FAQ
What makes Power And Glory technically notable?
It marked Fairey's first use of foil-blocking, where a metallic sheet is debossed onto the paper using an etched plate after silk screening. The effect mimics the delicate scrollwork found on US currency, tying the technique to the work's themes of money and power.
What is the image based on?
The genesis is the American flag. Fairey graphically dissects the Stars and Stripes and reconfigures them so a single dominant central star, carrying the Obey motif, is surrounded by seven stripes, questioning allegiance and consumer branding.
What is the edition and size?
It is a silkscreen and gold foil-block print on Somerset Tub-sized 410gsm paper, measuring 69.4 x 69.4 cm (27.3 x 27.3 inches), signed and numbered in an edition of 75. It is print I of a four-print set.
Who published it?
It was published by London's Paul Stolper Gallery, the gallery's third project with Fairey, and was exhibited at the LA Art Show, January 15 to 19, 2014.
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.