Obama "Hope" creator Shepard Fairey to talk "soon" with Buttigieg camp

Works by Shepard Fairey on display at “Beyond The Streets.” Credit: Dan Bradica, courtesy “Beyond The Streets”

Artist Shepard Fairey, known for the “Hope” portrait of former President Obama and his “We The People” series, said he plans to have a conversation “soon” with South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s camp about possibly creating a piece in support of his campaign.

While noting it’s still early in the primary season, Fairey told Yello during a press preview of “Beyond The Streets” last week that Buttigieg is his favorite candidate “so far.” He called Buttigieg “extremely intelligent” with an “oratory gift like Obama.”

Fairey said he appreciated the 37-year-old mayor’s “unique perspective” that comes from being gay, a military veteran, and working in local government “where you have to deal with people directly.”

Fairey backed Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in the 2016 Democratic primary. He released a print that February for a Red Hot Chili Peppers show in support of Sanders.

In 2017, Fairey told me in an interview he wasn’t likely to make another “Hope”-style portrait of a candidate.

“I am not as interested in making portraits of people that maybe play into the idea of image and celebrity as the important thing when I actually think substance is,” he said.

Fairey’s 30th anniversary show “Facing The Giant: 3 Decades of Dissent” is now on display at “Beyond the Streets” in Brooklyn.