Obama - Be The Change by Shepard Fairey: Collector Guide, Value & What to Know
The Obama - Be The Change screen print by Shepard Fairey is one of the most culturally loaded works in the OBEY Giant catalog — a direct artifact from the most significant political poster campaign of the 21st century. If you are asking whether this print is worth buying, the short answer is yes, provided you can verify OBEY Giant studio documentation. Fairey's Obama imagery sits at the intersection of street art history, American political history, and blue-chip collectibility. Works from this series trade on both the art market and the political memorabilia market simultaneously, giving them a dual collector base that supports sustained demand.
About Obama - Be The Change
Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign became a generational cultural moment, and Shepard Fairey was at the center of it. Fairey designed the iconic HOPE poster — arguably the most reproduced political artwork since World War II propaganda — independently, before the campaign officially sanctioned it. The image became the visual identity of an entire movement: a stencil-style portrait rendered in Fairey's signature red, cream, and blue palette, with bold sans-serif text anchoring the composition. Be The Change extends that visual language, pairing Obama's likeness with a phrase rooted in the Gandhian tradition of personal accountability as social transformation. It is not simply a campaign souvenir — it is a statement about civic participation addressed directly to the viewer.
The cultural weight of this subject is difficult to overstate. Obama was the first African American president of the United States, and the 2008 campaign drew record voter turnout, particularly among young voters who were responding to exactly the kind of populist street-art messaging that Fairey had spent two decades perfecting. Fairey did not design this work for the campaign machine; he designed it as an artist who believed in the message. That authenticity — an OBEY Giant poster made outside the formal political apparatus — is a large part of why these prints retain value. They are primary documents of a specific moment in American culture, made by the artist best equipped to translate that moment into a collectible object.
The Print — What You Are Getting
Obama - Be The Change is a hand-pulled screen print produced by the OBEY Giant studio. Standard Fairey editions in the political and social commentary series run from 150 to 450 signed and numbered prints, with some editions issued as smaller artist proofs or variant colorways. The visual approach is unmistakably Fairey: flat-field color separations derived from his propaganda-poster aesthetic, bold geometric shapes, high-contrast tonal blocking, and the deliberate tension between fine-art printmaking and street-level urgency. The palette for Obama works typically draws on the now-iconic red, cream, and blue register, though specific colorways can vary by edition run. The standard format for this print is 18x24 inches, a size that works equally well unframed as a statement piece or archivally framed under UV-protective glass. The paper stock is heavyweight archival, consistent with OBEY Giant's production standards since the early 2000s.
Authentication and Provenance
For Shepard Fairey prints, OBEY Giant studio documentation is the definitive authentication standard — full stop. What this means in practice: a genuine signed edition will carry a pencil signature by Shepard Fairey in the lower right margin, a hand-written edition number in pencil in the format XX/YYY (your number out of the total edition size), and the OBEY blind-deboss seal physically pressed into the paper. That seal is the most reliable single authentication marker, because it cannot be scanned, copied, or printed — it is a physical impression made at the time of production. No third-party COA is required for Fairey prints, and no third-party COA is recognized as a primary authentication source by serious collectors or auction specialists. If a seller offers a Fairey print with only a third-party certificate and no OBEY blind deboss, treat that as a red flag. At Gauntlet Gallery, every Fairey print is verified against these OBEY Giant standards before it enters inventory.
Value in Context
Obama-related Fairey works occupy a premium tier within his catalog. Standard OBEY Giant screen prints from cultural subjects — musicians, athletes, activist figures — trade in a broad range depending on subject recognition and edition size. Obama imagery trades at the higher end of that range because the dual collector base (street art collectors and American political history collectors) creates competition that does not exist for more niche subjects. Limited-edition signed works from the Obama series have appeared at secondary market prices ranging from several hundred dollars for smaller editions to well above a thousand dollars for tightly editioned or variant works in exceptional condition. Condition is critical: unframed prints stored flat in archival sleeves hold value better than prints that have been rolled, creased, or exposed to light. Contact Gauntlet Gallery directly for current pricing on this specific edition — market conditions for blue-chip street art shift, and we price to reflect current secondary market data rather than fixed retail. For broader context on where Fairey prints sit in the collectible art market, see our Shepard Fairey Collector Guide.
FAQ
Ready to add this to your collection? Browse all Shepard Fairey prints at Gauntlet Gallery — authenticated, documented, and priced to current market. Contact us directly for availability and pricing on Obama - Be The Change.
