Gauntlet Gallery
What is Shepard Fairey’s piece called “Bad Brains Bowery & Bleeker (First Edition)”?
Artist Statement
Bad Brains Bowery and Bleeker. 24 x 18. Screen print on 80# cream Speckletone paper. Original illustration based on a photograph by Glen E. Friedman. Signed by Shepard Fairey and Glen E. Friedman. Numbered edition of 500. Comes with a Digital Certificate of Authenticity provided by Verisart.
Summary
Bad Brains Bowery & Bleeker is a 2025 First Edition screen print published by Subliminal Projects, 24 x 18 inches on 80# cream Speckletone paper, in a numbered edition of 500. The work is an original illustration by Shepard Fairey based on a photograph by Glen E. Friedman of the pioneering hardcore punk band Bad Brains. The print is signed by both Shepard Fairey and Glen E. Friedman and comes with a digital Certificate of Authenticity provided by Verisart. It priced at $90 on release. The available description is limited to these production and collaboration details.
Why It Matters
This print reflects two enduring threads in Fairey's practice: his devotion to hardcore and punk music and his collaborations with influential music photographers. The image is based on a photograph by Glen E. Friedman, a documentarian closely associated with hardcore punk and the band Bad Brains, and the dual signature gives the piece provenance from both the artist and the original photographer. Bad Brains hold a foundational place in hardcore history, so a Fairey treatment of them carries appeal for collectors who track his music tributes. Publication through Subliminal Projects, rather than Obey Giant, locates it within the gallery side of Fairey's output. Because the supplied description is limited to production facts, the broader narrative is sparse, but the collaboration with a noted photographer and the subject's stature in punk make it a meaningful entry in Fairey's ongoing series of music-portrait prints honoring the bands that shaped his worldview.
Collector Perspective
This print appeals to collectors of Fairey's music and punk-related work and to fans of Bad Brains and hardcore history specifically. The dual signature from Shepard Fairey and photographer Glen E. Friedman, plus the Verisart certificate, adds documented provenance valued by buyers who collect collaborative pieces. Published by Subliminal Projects in a numbered edition of 500, it sits within a defined edition size. At 24 x 18 inches it frames readily for a music or street-art grouping. It fits collections built around Fairey's band tributes and photographer collaborations, though buyers should note the catalog description here is limited mainly to production details.
Historical Context
Released in 2025 through Subliminal Projects, this print belongs to Fairey's long-running practice of memorializing the punk and hardcore bands that influenced him. Basing the image on a Glen E. Friedman photograph connects it to a lineage of Fairey works built on documentary music photography from artists embedded in the punk scene. Bad Brains' standing as hardcore pioneers situates the piece among Fairey's tributes to foundational counterculture acts. Its publication through Subliminal Projects, his gallery and print imprint, reflects the contemporary period of his catalog and his continued collaboration with photographers whose archives document the music history he draws upon.
FAQ
What does this print depict?
It is an original illustration by Shepard Fairey of the hardcore punk band Bad Brains, based on a photograph by Glen E. Friedman. The title references the Bowery and Bleeker location associated with the New York punk scene.
What are the edition details?
Bad Brains Bowery & Bleeker is a First Edition screen print measuring 24 x 18 inches on 80# cream Speckletone paper, in a numbered edition of 500. It is signed by both Shepard Fairey and Glen E. Friedman and includes a Digital Certificate of Authenticity from Verisart. It was released in 2025 at $90.
Who published this print?
According to the source, the print was published by Subliminal Projects, Shepard Fairey's gallery and print imprint, rather than Obey Giant. It was a 2025 release.
Was it a collaboration?
Yes. The image is Fairey's original illustration based on a photograph by Glen E. Friedman, a photographer associated with documenting hardcore punk. Both Fairey and Friedman signed the edition.
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.