Debuting this summer, American Civics is the first-ever collaboration between acclaimed contemporary artist Shepard Fairey and the estate of legendary photographer Jim Marshall.
In it, Fairey interprets Marshall’s iconic photography from the 1960’s, including images of Johnny Cash, Cesar Chavez, and Fannie Lee Chaney, with five new works, vividly depicting the humanity behind some of our country’s enduring social justice issues: Voting Rights, Mass Incarceration, Workers’ Rights, Gun Culture, and Two Americas.
The artwork will be unveiling and on display at the San Francisco Art Exchange (458 Geary St., San Francisco, CA 94102) on Saturday, August 13 from 7-10pm.
Social issues that have underscored the divisiveness of recent past decades, especially the ’60s, have characterized our time.
• Racism and bigotry, deeply rooted in America’s history, are visible in places like Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore, Md., and Charleston, S.C.
• Over 46 million people live in poverty in present-day America, including an estimated 15 million children.
• In the first three months of 2016, more than 3,000 deaths in the U.S. were gun-related.
• America continues to struggle with the problem of mass incarceration. In fact, though having only 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. now has more than 25% of the incarcerated population.
The art of American Civics gives a face to these issues to cultivate dialogue and encourage vigorous solutions to problems that have divided the country and eroded the core of the American ideals.
With each issue addressed in the artwork, it is the intention of Shepard Fairey and Jim Marshall’s estate to donate a portion of the proceeds to an appropriate charitable partner. These partners include:
• The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (Voting Rights), America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice.
• No Kid Hungry, a campaign of Share Our Strength (Two Americas), works to end child hunger in America by ensuring all children get the healthy food they need, every day.
• The United Farm Workers Foundation (Workers’ Rights), whose mission is to open the doors of opportunity to working people and their communities.
• Caliber Foundation (Gun Control), offers support to victims, families and communities that have been devastated by illegal gun violence in America.
• #cut50 (Mass Incarceration), a national bipartisan effort to smartly and safely reduce America’s incarcerated population by 50 percent over the next 10 years.
American Civics is a Fine Art Limited Edition series of five serigraphs: Voting Rights, Mass Incarceration, Workers’ Rights, Gun Culture, and Two Americas. Each title is limited to an edition of 100 prints, and each is hand signed and numbered by Shepard Fairey and stamped by Jim Marshall Photography LLC.
There are four portfolios of the American Civics print series, which will include the Jim Marshall Limited Edition Estate photograph of each subject in a portfolio box designed by Fairey.
Jim Marshall’s photographs of Woodstock, Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and Miles Davis, along with his vivid images of the counterculture, civil rights, and antiwar protests chronicled a generation. The only photographer ever to receive the Recording Academy’s TRUSTEE AWARD, an honorary GRAMMY, Marshall saw himself almost as an anthropologist, documenting the counterculture and the explosion of creativity and celebrity in the 60’s and 70’s. He immersed himself in that world more than any other photographer – becoming a fixture.
Shepard Fairey, called the “Citizen Artist,” has promoted social justice on issues such as environmental protection, corporate greed, and racial inequality. Perhaps the most famous of his works is his creation of the Obama Hope poster, the defining image of the 2008 presidential campaign. In addition to his guerrilla street art presence, the artist has executed more than 60 large-scale painted public murals around the world as of 2016. His works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and many others.
San Francisco Art Exchange is the only gallery authorized to sell the portfolios and individual prints. Please contact San Francisco Art Exchange sales@sfae.com or call 415-441-8840.
For more information on American Civics, please click here.
