Shepard Fairey OBEY – Natural Springs Damaged Stencil Series 2017
★ Originally Sold ONLY as a Complete 8-Print Set —
Individual prints from the Damaged Stencil Series are scarce on the secondary market and rarely surface alone. Tied to Fairey's largest solo exhibition, "DAMAGED" at Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles.
What You Are Getting
This is Shepard Fairey's Natural Springs — a haunting, single-color offset lithograph printed in deep black ink on cream Speckletone paper, from the celebrated 2017 "Damaged Stencil Series." It is part of a set of eight prints released together in December 2017 to accompany Fairey's largest-ever solo exhibition, DAMAGED, at Subliminal Projects in Los Angeles. The series was sold exclusively as a complete 8-print set: individual prints were never available separately at retail, making single examples genuinely scarce on the secondary market.
The composition centers on a woman in a headscarf, rendered in Fairey's bold stencil style, holding a dripping lotus flower — a recurring motif in his environmental work, where the lotus (symbol of purity) is shown contaminated, its stem weeping black drops. Over her shoulder, a deliberate dystopian counterpoint: an oil derrick encircled in a hazard/warning symbol, positioned where one might expect a halo. The background is dense with layered photographic and architectural collage, including industrial structures, floral damask patterns, and graphic ephemera — all rendered in the same saturated black-on-cream palette that evokes actual stencil street work.
The "damaged" in the series title refers to Fairey's deliberate use of distressed, worn-down printing plates and stencils — a technique that creates the dramatic, organically torn borders visible throughout the composition. These ragged, fraying edges are printed design elements, not physical damage to the paper: they mimic the authentic look of hand-pulled stencil work left on a wall, where the edges of the paper or stencil lose adhesion and the spray paint bleeds outward in unpredictable patterns. This technique gives the print a rawness and urgency — it looks like street ephemera elevated to museum object.
Print Details
| Artist |
Shepard Fairey (OBEY) |
| Title |
Natural Springs |
| Series |
Damaged Stencil Series (8-print set) |
| Year |
2017 (December release) |
| Medium |
Offset lithograph — single-color black ink on cream Speckletone paper |
| Colors |
Black on cream/off-white — monochrome (not multi-color) |
| Size |
18" × 24" (46 × 61 cm) |
| Edition |
Numbered edition of 400 — hand-signed and numbered in pencil |
| Damaged Borders |
Ragged, torn-edge borders throughout — intentional printed design elements, not paper damage |
| Signature |
Hand-signed by Shepard Fairey in pencil (verso or lower margin) |
| Exhibition |
"DAMAGED" — Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, December 2017 (Fairey's largest-ever solo show) |
| Publisher |
Obey Giant / Studio Number One |
| Original retail |
$160 for the complete 8-print set (sold out at release) |
| Edition Number |
Please verify specific number (XX/400) from the pencil notation and add to title before listing |
| Condition |
Excellent — crisp black ink on cream paper; unframed and stored flat |
Understanding the Visual Language
Fairey's use of a single color here is a deliberate formal and conceptual choice. The Damaged Stencil Series strips away his signature multi-color palette — the red, cream, and black combinations his work is most known for — and returns to black-and-white, to the raw monochrome urgency of street stencil work, propaganda leaflets, and underground political printing. It is less polished, more honest, and in Fairey's framing, more appropriate to the subject matter: the damage being done to democratic institutions, environmental systems, and social trust during a period of acute political crisis.
Natural Springs in particular operates as an environmental critique. The dripping lotus — an ancient symbol of spiritual purity growing from polluted water — holds its stem like a protest sign. The oil derrick warning circle places industrial extraction in explicit symbolic relationship with the female figure, which in Fairey's visual vocabulary typically represents nature, nurturing, and a kind of quiet resistance. The title is ironic: natural springs are what the oil industry's extraction threatens. The print was made the year after the Dakota Access Pipeline controversy, and the imagery resonates with that moment directly.
The Complete Damaged Stencil Series — All 8 Prints
This print is #1 in the thematic sequence of the Damaged Stencil Series. The full set of 8, each 18" × 24" offset on cream Speckletone, edition of 400:
| ★ |
Natural Springs — Woman with headscarf holding dripping lotus; oil derrick warning symbol background (This Print)
|
| · |
Peace Guard 2 — Armored figure with flowers in gun barrel |
| · |
Learn to Obey — Figure in uniform beneath propaganda-style text |
| · |
Freedom of Choice — Figure surrounded by consumer goods |
| · |
Proud Parents — Family portrait with subversive layering |
| · |
Printing Press — Typography and press imagery |
| · |
My Florist Is a Dick — Satirical consumer culture critique |
| · |
Sinking Liberty — Statue of Liberty partially submerged |
About the DAMAGED Exhibition
Fairey on the exhibition and series concept:
"DAMAGED is an honest diagnosis, but diagnosis is the first step to recognizing and solving problems. I definitely think that art can be part of the solution because it can inspire people to look at an issue they might otherwise ignore or reject." The December 2017 exhibition at Subliminal Projects — Fairey's own gallery space in Los Angeles — was his most ambitious solo show to date, assembling work that directly addressed the political climate following the 2016 election: democratic erosion, environmental rollback, media manipulation, and corporate capture of public institutions. The Damaged Stencil Series served as the exhibition's print edition, each work a deliberately raw, street-stencil-aesthetic response to the glossy propaganda of the era it critiques.
About the Artist — Shepard Fairey (OBEY)
Born 1970 in Charleston, South Carolina, Shepard Fairey studied at the Rhode Island School of Design and launched his career with the Andre the Giant Has a Posse wheat-paste campaign — one of the first viral street art movements — which evolved into the global OBEY brand. His work is held in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution, MoMA New York, LACMA, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. His 2008 Obama HOPE poster remains one of the most recognized political images of the 21st century. The Damaged Stencil Series represents a return to his most uncompromising roots: stripped-down, urgent, undecorated.
What Is Included
- Original Shepard Fairey Natural Springs offset lithograph, Damaged Stencil Series, 2017
- Hand-signed in pencil by Shepard Fairey
- Hand-numbered in pencil — numbered edition of 400
- Single-color black offset on cream Speckletone paper — unframed, stored flat
- Gauntlet Gallery digital provenance documentation
Shipping & Handling
Professional packing. Insured delivery. UPS.
Shipped via UPS in a flat rigid mailer with acid-free tissue interleaving, cardboard backing boards, and foam corner protection. Full insurance included. Tracking provided on all orders.
Domestic (USA): UPS Ground or UPS 2-Day — typically 3–7 business days.
International: UPS International — message us before purchasing for a shipping quote. International buyers are responsible for local duties and VAT.
Every print leaves us in the same condition it arrived. That's not a promise — it's a track record.
More Shepard Fairey & Street Art at Gauntlet Gallery
We carry an ever-rotating selection of authenticated Shepard Fairey prints — environmental works, political editions, floral patterns, letterpress prints, and large-format silkscreens — alongside Banksy, Death NYC, and signed music collectibles. Looking for other prints from the Damaged Stencil Series? Message us — we may have additional titles available. Add us to your Saved Sellers to be notified when new Fairey inventory drops.
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Originally an art gallery in San Francisco, Gauntlet Gauntlet was built at the intersection of street culture, historic moments, and disciplined collecting. Rooted in the ethos of underground art movements — skate, punk, protest graphics, and independent publishing — we curate pieces that carry both cultural weight and market structure. This time bringing these items to the world after our technical in reinvention.
Our focus spans limited edition fine art, street art pioneers, music and space memorabilia, and historically significant signed works. Every item is selected for scarcity, authenticity, and long-term relevance — not short-term hype.
From museum-collected artists and politically iconic prints to astronaut autographs and era-defining music signatures, Global Gauntlet exists to preserve cultural milestones and help collectors acquire them with confidence.
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Every artist has a story. Every fan has a memory.
This isn't just a guitar — it's a bridge between the artist's world and yours. Each piece in this collection has been subtly customized to reflect the unique aesthetic of the artist it represents — from tonal choices and finish details to design elements that echo their signature style and creative identity.
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SHEPARD FAIREY
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.
What makes Fairey compelling for collectors isn’t just name recognition — it’s durability. His work sits at the intersection of activism, design, and pop culture. \
From the globally recognized Hope poster to decades of tightly controlled screenprint editions, he has demonstrated both cultural relevance and disciplined market structure.
Institutional validation from MoMA, the Smithsonian, and the V&A reinforces long-term credibility. Meanwhile, secondary market data shows consistent liquidity and steady appreciation across core prints.
For collectors, this is cultural equity with infrastructure behind it — not trend-driven volatility.
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