Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Sedation In Bloom (Red / Cream)”?
Artist Statement
I originally worked on this poppy pattern art as part of my collaboration with artist Gordon Cheung. In our piece, we addressed the tragic murder of Vincent Chin and the historical use of anti-Asian imagery and symbols in Western culture. The poppy is a beautiful flower with many symbolic interpretations, including peace, death, sleep, and sedation. I often weave floral and decorative patterns into my art to draw the viewer in and make challenging concepts more digestible. However, decorative appeal can be used as a tool to sedate people and keep them distracted from more important social issues. Whether in entertainment, alcohol and drugs, or conspicuous consumption, I think sedation is a major cause of social and political complacency and ignorance. These Sedation In Bloom prints serve the dual purpose of a decorative escape and a reminder to stay awake and aware! -Shepard Sedation In Bloom. 18 x 24 inches. Screenprint on thick cream Speckletone paper. Signed by Shepard Fairey. Numbered edition of 150. Limited quantities of the FULL set (all eight prints) will be sold at a discounted price of $320. $45 for a single print.
Summary
Sedation In Bloom is a 2021 Shepard Fairey screen print published by Obey Giant, measuring 18 x 24 inches on thick cream Speckletone paper, signed and numbered in an edition of 150. It appears in eight colorways, with the full set offered together and single prints sold separately. The poppy-pattern imagery originated in Fairey's collaboration with artist Gordon Cheung, which addressed the murder of Vincent Chin and the historical use of anti-Asian imagery in Western culture. Fairey notes the poppy carries symbolic meanings including peace, death, sleep, and sedation. He uses decorative appeal both to draw viewers in and to warn against sedation as a cause of social and political complacency.
Why It Matters
Sedation In Bloom is conceptually layered for a decorative-looking floral print, which is precisely Fairey's point. He describes weaving floral and ornamental patterns into his work to draw viewers in and make difficult concepts digestible, while warning that the same decorative appeal can sedate people and distract them from important social issues. The poppy is central to this double meaning, carrying associations of peace, death, sleep, and sedation. The imagery's origin adds significant weight: it began in Fairey's collaboration with artist Gordon Cheung addressing the murder of Vincent Chin and the historical deployment of anti-Asian imagery in Western culture, grounding a beautiful pattern in a serious history. That tension between escape and awareness, between the print as decorative object and as a reminder to stay awake, is the heart of the work and a clear articulation of Fairey's broader strategy. Released across eight colorways in a relatively small edition of 150 each, with a full-set option, it strongly rewards set collectors. For a database, the documented Gordon Cheung collaboration and the Vincent Chin reference make this entry far richer than a typical floral edition, distinguishing it as a piece where decoration and critique are deliberately fused.
Collector Perspective
Sedation In Bloom appeals to collectors who appreciate Fairey's pattern-based work and the way he hides serious content inside decorative beauty. The eight-colorway structure is a major draw for completists, with the discounted full set offering a clear collecting goal, while single prints at $45 make individual colorways accessible. Its small edition of 150 per colorway gives each version a more limited feel than his larger drops. The poppy motif's symbolic richness and the documented Gordon Cheung collaboration add intellectual appeal for collectors who value backstory. Visually versatile across eight color schemes, the 18 x 24 format suits flexible display and grouping. It fits collections organized around floral and decorative work, collaborations, or Fairey's recurring tension between aesthetics and message.
Historical Context
Sedation In Bloom extends Fairey's long use of floral and decorative patterning as a vehicle for social commentary, here traced to his collaboration with artist Gordon Cheung that confronted the murder of Vincent Chin and the history of anti-Asian imagery in Western culture. Reworking that poppy pattern into a standalone 2021 edition, Fairey foregrounds the flower's competing meanings, peace and death, sleep and sedation, to argue that decorative appeal can lull as easily as it can attract. The print belongs to his early-2020s output in which he repeatedly paired ornamental surfaces with cautionary messaging about complacency. Issued in late 2021 across eight colorways with a full-set option, it reflects his frequent practice of multiplying a single image into a coordinated color family. Within his arc it sits at the intersection of his collaborative work and his ongoing exploration of how beauty can both engage and pacify an audience.
FAQ
How many colorways does Sedation In Bloom have?
It comes in eight colorways, including Black/Blue, Black/Cream, Black/Red, Blue/Baby Blue, Cream/Blue, Cream/Gold, Red/Cream, and Red/Gold. Limited quantities of the full set of all eight prints were sold at a discounted $320, with single prints at $45.
Where did the poppy imagery come from?
Fairey originally created the poppy pattern as part of his collaboration with artist Gordon Cheung. That piece addressed the murder of Vincent Chin and the historical use of anti-Asian imagery and symbols in Western culture, giving the decorative pattern a serious underlying subject.
What does the poppy symbolize here?
Fairey notes the poppy carries many symbolic meanings, including peace, death, sleep, and sedation. He uses floral patterns to draw viewers in, but warns that decorative appeal can also sedate and distract people from important social issues, making the prints both a decorative escape and a reminder to stay aware.
What is the edition size and format?
Each colorway is a numbered edition of 150, an 18 x 24 inch screenprint on thick cream Speckletone paper signed by Shepard Fairey. The relatively small per-colorway edition gives each version a more limited feel than his larger releases.
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.