Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Late Hour Riot”?
Artist Statement
Late Hour Riot. 18 x 24 inches. Screenprint on cream Speckletone paper. Signed by Shepard Fairey and Dennis Morris. Numbered edition of 450. $80. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Black Lives Matter. I've been a fan of Dennis Morris' photography of people like the Sex Pistols and Bob Marley for many years but I only recently discovered the photos from his series "Growing Up Black." I love Dennis' photos from his neighborhood in London so when he asked me to collaborate on a piece inspired by a song by his band Basement 5, I wanted to find a connection between a Basement 5 lyric and a photo from the "Growing Up Black" series. The lyrics to the song "Riot" made sense with his photograph of Sista Cool anxiously living in a world of police and thieves reflected in her glasses. Check out Basement 5 if you can… the great tunes are in the spirit of the Slits, the Clash, and Public Image Ltd (PiL). Art and music are great on their own, but even better together! – Shepard In the small hours of the night, With unrest on the streets, Sista Cool will pray for your soul, There is a riot going on, Kids on the street, with itchy feet. With the reissue of my Basement 5 album, this title is a reference to a diary of events that happened in my youth from 1965-1980. Shepard and I collaborated to create a poster that refers to a track from the album called "Riot." – Dennis
Summary
Late Hour Riot is a 2017 screen print by Shepard Fairey, published by Obey Giant. It measures 18 x 24 inches, is printed on cream Speckletone paper, signed by both Fairey and photographer Dennis Morris, and issued as a numbered edition of 450. The work is a collaboration built around a Dennis Morris photograph of Sista Cool from his Growing Up Black series, paired with lyrics from the song Riot by Morris's band Basement 5. A portion of the proceeds benefited Black Lives Matter. The print fuses Morris's documentary photography with Fairey's graphic treatment, uniting art and music.
Why It Matters
Late Hour Riot is a layered collaboration that bridges music, documentary photography, and social-justice advocacy, three currents that run deep in Shepard Fairey's work. Built around photographer Dennis Morris, known for his images of the Sex Pistols and Bob Marley, the print pairs Morris's photograph of Sista Cool from his Growing Up Black series with lyrics from Riot, a song by Morris's band Basement 5. That fusion of a specific photograph and a specific lyric gives the work an unusually rich source pedigree, grounding Fairey's graphic treatment in real documentary material rather than invented imagery. The dual signatures of Fairey and Morris underscore the genuine partnership behind it. Thematically, the image of Sista Cool living in a world of police and thieves, with that tension reflected in her glasses, ties the work directly to contemporary questions of policing and racial justice, a connection made explicit by directing a portion of proceeds to Black Lives Matter. For collectors, Late Hour Riot offers a true collaborative object that sits at the crossroads of punk and post-punk music history, street photography, and Fairey's activist ethos, capturing his conviction that art and music are even better together.
Collector Perspective
Late Hour Riot appeals to collectors at the intersection of music, photography, and social justice. The dual signatures of Fairey and Dennis Morris and the punk and post-punk lineage make it especially attractive to collectors who follow Fairey's music collaborations and Morris's photography of the Sex Pistols, Bob Marley, and his Growing Up Black series. The Black Lives Matter proceeds add activist appeal for mission-minded buyers. Signed and sized at 18 x 24 inches on cream Speckletone paper, it is a displayable, recognizable Fairey object. Its edition of 450 keeps it accessible. It pairs naturally with Fairey's other music and counterculture prints and his collaborative works.
Historical Context
Late Hour Riot belongs to Fairey's 2017 run of music-driven collaborations, a thread that connects his street-art roots to punk and post-punk culture. The partnership with Dennis Morris, a photographer tied to the Sex Pistols, Bob Marley, and the band Basement 5, links the print to a specific lineage of London music history and documentary image-making. Drawing on Morris's Growing Up Black series and the song Riot, the work fuses image, lyric, and graphic design. Within Fairey's arc, it reflects his mature practice of collaborative, music-anchored editions that also carried social-justice intent, here through proceeds benefiting Black Lives Matter, uniting his lifelong investment in art, music, and activism.
FAQ
Who collaborated on Late Hour Riot?
The print is a collaboration between Shepard Fairey and photographer Dennis Morris, and it is signed by both. It is built around Morris's photograph of Sista Cool from his Growing Up Black series, paired with lyrics from the song Riot by Morris's band Basement 5.
Did proceeds support a cause?
Yes. According to the source, a portion of the proceeds will benefit Black Lives Matter, tying the work's themes of policing and racial justice to direct support for the cause.
What is the imagery based on?
It is based on Dennis Morris's photograph of Sista Cool, depicted anxiously living in a world of police and thieves reflected in her glasses, drawn from his Growing Up Black series. Fairey paired it with the Basement 5 song Riot to connect image and lyric.
What are the print's specifications?
Late Hour Riot is a screen print measuring 18 x 24 inches on cream Speckletone paper, signed by Shepard Fairey and Dennis Morris, and issued as a numbered edition of 450, published by Obey Giant in 2017.
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.