Shepard Fairey "DEMAGOGUE" 2016 Signed Limited Edition Screen Print 18x24
About the work
About This Piece
Shepard Fairey "DEMAGOGUE" Signed Print (2016). Limited edition of 500, this authentic hand-pulled screen print measures 18" x 24" on Speckletone paper. Features Fairey's signature, numbered, and Obey Giant blind stamp with a Certificate of Authenticity. Ideal for collectors and art lovers. Ships flat and fully insured.
Shepard Fairey / Obey Giant
"DEMAGOGUE" • Signed & Numbered • Edition of 500
2016 Limited Edition Screen Print • 18" × 24" on Cream Speckletone Paper
Hand-Signed in Pencil • Obey Giant Blind Stamp Verso • COA Included
What You Are Getting
This is an authentic Shepard Fairey "DEMAGOGUE" limited edition screen print, edition of 500, hand-signed in pencil and hand-numbered by the artist. The print carries the Obey Giant embossed blind stamp verso and includes a Certificate of Authenticity. Provenance traces to the original release through Obey Giant / authorized gallery distribution. Printed on cream Speckletone fine art paper at 18" × 24", this is a hand-pulled silkscreen -- not a digital reproduction or offset lithograph.
"DEMAGOGUE" was released on October 18, 2016, as a collaboration between Shepard Fairey and Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand, created as the artwork for the band's politically charged single of the same name. The image renders Trump's face in Fairey's signature propaganda-poster aesthetic -- a tight crop on the mouth mid-scream, executed in a stark black, white, and red palette that deliberately evokes Orwellian surveillance imagery and Soviet-era political graphics. The word "DEMAGOGUE" runs across the top of the composition, removing any ambiguity about the artist's intent. Released three weeks before the 2016 presidential election, with proceeds benefiting the Center for Popular Democracy and their Universal Voting Rights efforts, this print occupies a specific and unrepeatable moment in American political art history.
Print Details
Artist Shepard Fairey / Obey Giant Title "DEMAGOGUE" Year 2016 -- Released October 18, 2016 Medium Hand-pulled screen print on cream Speckletone fine art paper Size 18" × 24" (45.7 × 61 cm) Edition Limited edition of 500 -- Hand-numbered by the artist Signature Hand-signed in pencil by Shepard Fairey Blind Stamp Obey Giant embossed blind stamp verso COA Certificate of Authenticity included Provenance Original release through Obey Giant / authorized gallery distribution Framing Unframed -- Ships flat Condition Excellent. See photos for full details.Authentication
HAND-SIGNED • NUMBERED /500 • OBEY GIANT BLIND STAMP • COA- Hand-signed in pencil by Shepard Fairey. The artist's signature appears directly on the print.
- Hand-numbered. Edition of 500, individually numbered by the artist.
- Obey Giant embossed blind stamp verso. The Obey Giant studio's physical impression on the reverse of the print -- a tactile authentication marker pressed directly into the paper that cannot be replicated by printing, scanning, or digital reproduction. The blind stamp is the standard Obey Giant studio authentication for signed limited editions and confirms the print originated from an authorized production run.
- Certificate of Authenticity included.
About the Work
"DEMAGOGUE" was created as a collaboration between Shepard Fairey and Franz Ferdinand, the Scottish rock band, for the band's first overtly political single of the same name -- a track released as part of the "30 Days, 30 Songs" project in the final weeks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Fairey designed the image after listening to the song and drawing from his own assessment of the political moment. He cited George Orwell's 1984, Big Brother, and the concept of double-speak as direct inspirations for the composition.
The image delivers on those references with characteristic Fairey directness. The composition is a tight crop on Trump's face, zooming in on the mouth mid-scream -- an image that deliberately echoes propaganda poster aesthetics where the leader's face becomes an instrument of broadcast power. The black, white, and red palette is a conscious choice: these are the colors of authoritarian graphic communication, from Soviet constructivism to Orwellian dystopia. The word "DEMAGOGUE" across the top of the composition removes any ambiguity, functioning simultaneously as a title, a label, and a warning. This is Fairey at his most politically direct -- no irony, no abstraction, no plausible deniability.
The print was released on ObeyGiant.com on October 18, 2016, at an original retail price of $60, with proceeds benefiting the Center for Popular Democracy and their efforts toward Universal Voting Rights. Paster kits with unsigned offset versions were distributed to swing states for public display. The signed edition of 500 sold out. Nearly a decade later, the image has accumulated historical weight that its original moment could not have predicted -- what was created as an election-season warning now reads as a document of the political fault line that has defined American public life ever since.
The "Hope" and "Demagogue" pairing: Fairey's two most politically significant prints sit at opposite poles of the same career. The 2008 "Hope" poster became arguably the most influential piece of political graphic art in the 21st century -- an image that helped define a presidential campaign built on optimism. Eight years later, "DEMAGOGUE" arrived as its dark mirror: same artist, same propaganda-poster technique, same political urgency, but directed at warning rather than inspiring. Collectors who hold both prints own the visual bookends of a pivotal decade in American political culture. For collectors who already own "Hope," "DEMAGOGUE" is the piece that completes the narrative arc.
About the Artist
Shepard Fairey (b. 1970, Charleston, South Carolina) emerged from the skateboard and punk scenes to become one of the most influential street artists and graphic designers of his generation. His "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" sticker campaign, launched in 1989, evolved into the globally recognized OBEY brand and one of the most successful viral art projects in history. The 2008 "Hope" poster for Barack Obama's presidential campaign cemented Fairey's place at the intersection of art, politics, and mass visual culture.
Fairey's visual language draws from Soviet constructivism, punk rock DIY ethics, commercial advertising, and the history of propaganda art -- a combination that allows his work to function simultaneously as fine art, political commentary, and graphic design. His prints are actively traded through major auction houses including Christie's and Sotheby's, with his signed limited editions forming one of the most liquid and well-documented secondary markets in contemporary street art. Fairey continues to produce large-scale murals, gallery exhibitions, and limited edition prints through the Obey Giant studio.
What Is Included
- Shepard Fairey "DEMAGOGUE" screen print -- 18" × 24" on cream Speckletone paper, 2016
- Hand-signed and numbered by Shepard Fairey -- Edition of 500
- Obey Giant embossed blind stamp verso
- Certificate of Authenticity
Ships unframed, flat, with protective materials.
Who This Is For
This print is ideal for Shepard Fairey and Obey Giant collectors, political art and propaganda art collectors, buyers who view the 2016 election as a pivotal cultural moment worth documenting on a wall, collectors who already own the "Hope" poster and want its thematic counterpart, Franz Ferdinand fans drawn to the cross-disciplinary collaboration, contemporary street art buyers seeking authenticated limited editions with established auction records, or anyone looking for a museum-quality screen print from one of the most important graphic artists of this generation.
At 18" × 24" on Speckletone paper, this is Fairey's standard print format -- the size and substrate his collector market knows and expects. The edition of 500 is mid-range for Fairey's output (some editions are as small as 50–100, while open editions are unsigned), placing this print in the accessible tier of his signed work while maintaining scarcity. The image's historical significance has only deepened in the years since its release. Signed, numbered, blind-stamped, and accompanied by a COA. Ships flat and ready to frame.
Shipping
This screen print ships flat with protective materials to prevent surface contact, bending, and corner damage during transit. Fully insured with tracking. International shipping available upon request.
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Few contemporary artists have bridged underground culture and institutional recognition as effectively as Shepard Fairey. Emerging from skate and punk subcultures with the original Obey Giant campaign, he built a visual language rooted in propaganda aesthetics, bold iconography, and political commentary.
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