The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA)

On Tuesday we went to see Shepard Fairey’s exhibit “Supply and Demand”. The artist is famous for the Obama campaign posters. These have Barack Obama’s face in blues and grays with “HOPE” and/or “PROGRESS” at the bottom. The work on the wall is usually found on the street on sides of buildings and sky scrapers. The pieces included political messages, other pop artists, and musicians for peace. There were a lot of people in the ICA when we were there.

We surveyed a few of them who were observing the art. One man who worked there said he has known Shepard for a long tome and seen his art around Boston. He didn’t like how his art was in a museum and thought it looked better in the street. Our reaction was similar because we weren’t allowed to take pictures in the museum of the artwork that was free all over the city, and the world.

The “Andre the Giant” work was one of his firsts. We learned that when he was in college, he created it as a little joke and posted it up all over Providence. It quickly spread and became one of his most seen pieces. A lot of us realized that we had actually seen some of his work, without knowing about it. Three of us own clothing with his symbols.

Everyone’s reaction was “I want to do that!” or “How do you do that?”
It truly inspired all of us.