Shepard Fairey Dalai Lama Compassion 2022 Signed Screen Print 18x24 Ed 500

SHEPARD FAIREY — DALAI LAMA COMPASSION — 2022

Signed & Numbered Screen Print | Edition of 500 | 18 x 24 Inches

A particularly meaningful Shepard Fairey release, Dalai Lama Compassion combines Fairey’s unmistakable graphic language with a subject centered not on power or confrontation, but on compassion, dignity and human connection.

Released in 2022 in support of Students for a Free Tibet, this limited-edition screen print depicts His Holiness the Dalai Lama and was created from a photograph by acclaimed photographer and documentarian Don Farber. Fairey issued the work in connection with the 10th Art for Tibet benefit, with 100% of the original print-sale proceeds benefiting Students for a Free Tibet.

That history makes this more than a striking Fairey portrait. It is a work created specifically around an idea: the ability of art to connect people with values larger than themselves.

THE MEANING BEHIND THE IMAGE

Fairey has built much of his career around the visual mechanics of propaganda—bold faces, restricted palettes, symbols, repetition and imagery designed to stop the viewer immediately.

Here, however, he directs that visual power toward a very different message.

Fairey explained that what the Dalai Lama represents—“kindness, compassion, human connection, and belief in dignity for all human beings”—was important not only for Tibetans, but for the wider world.

That idea is embedded throughout the composition.

The Dalai Lama is shown looking downward rather than confronting the viewer directly. The pose creates a quieter, more contemplative atmosphere than many of Fairey’s political portraits.

Behind him appears the word:

COMPASSION

alongside the image of a dove, one of the most enduring visual symbols of peace.

The right side of the composition is filled with intricate floral, botanical and decorative imagery. Those softer motifs create a deliberate counterpoint to Fairey’s harder-edged red and black graphic treatment.

The result balances two visual worlds:

strength and gentleness
political struggle and peace
graphic propaganda and spiritual reflection

THE DALAI LAMA & TIBET

The political context is important.

Fairey has been a longtime supporter of Students for a Free Tibet, an organization advocating for Tibetan freedom and human rights. The 2022 release coincided with the tenth Art for Tibet benefit exhibition and auction in New York.

That makes the imagery especially characteristic of Fairey’s broader practice.

His work frequently celebrates individuals who embody resistance, social justice, peace or political conviction. Rather than simply reproducing the likeness of the Dalai Lama, Fairey incorporates that likeness into the larger OBEY vocabulary of symbols, textures and visual messaging.

The artwork becomes both portrait and statement.

THE DON FARBER CONNECTION

The source photograph also gives the work an important documentary lineage.

Fairey based the image on a photograph by Don Farber, a photographer known for documenting Buddhist communities and the Dalai Lama. Fairey’s official release credited Farber directly as the source of the original photograph.

Fairey then translates that photographic image into his own medium.

Natural photographic detail becomes blocks of:

black
cream
red
gold
muted blue

The robes become layered graphic shapes. The background becomes an intricate collage of symbolic imagery. The recognizable face remains, but the photograph is transformed into something unmistakably Fairey.

THE COLOR PALETTE

This is also one of Fairey’s more visually sophisticated portrait prints.

The classic OBEY colors of red, black and cream remain prominent, but they are joined by muted turquoise-blue and gold.

Those additional colors dramatically change the emotional character of the work.

The blue field behind the Dalai Lama creates a sense of calm and distance, while the gold decorative elements evoke aged manuscripts, religious iconography and traditional ornament.

The intense red of the robes keeps the image firmly connected to Fairey’s street-art vocabulary.

From across a room, the portrait is immediately recognizable.

Up close, the background rewards much more examination—the dove, flowers, decorative patterning and distressed textures emerge gradually.

A PURPOSE-DRIVEN FAIREY RELEASE

One of the more compelling things about collecting Shepard Fairey is that many of his strongest releases exist at the intersection of art, politics, activism and design.

Dalai Lama Compassion is an excellent example.

The original release was not simply commercially themed. Fairey specifically created it to support the Tibetan cause, and the official release directed the proceeds to Students for a Free Tibet.

That gives collectors a documented connection between:

the subject of the artwork
the meaning of the image
the organization it supported
and the reason it was released

Those relationships make the work much richer historically than a portrait released without that context.

ARTWORK DETAILS

Artist: Shepard Fairey
Title: Dalai Lama Compassion
Year: 2022
Medium: Silkscreen / Screen Print
Paper: Thick Cream Speckle Tone Paper
Dimensions: 18 x 24 inches
Edition: 500
Signature: Hand-signed by Shepard Fairey
Numbering: Individually numbered from the edition
Publisher: OBEY Giant
Source Image: Photograph by Don Farber
Original Release Price: $75
Beneficiary: Students for a Free Tibet
Release Context: 10th Art for Tibet benefit

COLLECTOR APPEAL

This work checks several boxes that make a Fairey edition particularly interesting:

• Globally recognized historical and spiritual subject
• Signed Shepard Fairey edition
• Limited to 500
• Official OBEY Giant release
• Directly connected to a charitable and political cause
• Based on a documented Don Farber photograph
• Classic 18 x 24 inch Fairey format
• Strong red / black / cream palette with unusual blue and gold additions
• Excellent display image without sacrificing historical meaning

It also has unusually broad appeal.

A collector may approach it as Shepard Fairey, contemporary street art, political art, Buddhist imagery, Tibetan history, or simply as an exceptionally strong portrait.

CONDITION & PRESENTATION

Please review the photographs carefully for the condition of the actual print being offered, including the paper surface, corners, edges, signature and edition number.

The interior photographs are provided to demonstrate approximate scale and presentation only. Unless the listing specifically states otherwise, the artwork is sold unframed.

The print will be carefully protected for shipment and insured appropriately.

WHY THIS ONE MATTERS

Fairey has produced many portraits, but Dalai Lama Compassion stands apart because its subject, message and release purpose all reinforce one another.

The Dalai Lama represents compassion.

The imagery explicitly incorporates that word.

The print was released to support the Tibetan cause.

And Fairey directly described the work as an effort to spread ideas of kindness, dignity and human connection.

That gives this edition something increasingly valuable in contemporary collecting:

a documented reason for existing beyond simply being another image.

For a collector looking for a Shepard Fairey work with both strong visual presence and a meaningful documented backstory, Dalai Lama Compassion is an exceptional example.