Shepard Fairey Putin's Ashes Signed Limited Edition Print 2023 18x24" Art
Edition of /450|18 x 24 in
About the work
About This Piece
Discover the striking Shepard Fairey "Putin's Ashes (Pussy Riot)" signed print (2023). This limited edition (450 copies) features bold graphics and rich tones, perfect for art collectors. Includes Certificate of Authenticity and professional packaging for safe delivery. Invest in contemporary political art today!
Shepard Fairey × Pussy Riot
"Putin's Ashes" • Signed & Numbered • Edition of 450
2023 Limited Edition Screen Print • 18" × 24" on Cream Speckletone Paper
Dual-Signed by Shepard Fairey & Nadya Tolokonnikova (Pussy Riot)
$30 Per Print Donated to Ukraine • Sold Out
What You Are Getting
This is an authentic Shepard Fairey × Pussy Riot "Putin's Ashes" limited edition screen print, edition of 450, dual-signed by Shepard Fairey and Nadya Tolokonnikova (co-founder and frontwoman of Pussy Riot). Hand-numbered and dated by the artist. Printed on thick cream Speckletone fine art paper at 18" × 24". Comes with a digital Certificate of Authenticity provided by Verisart, transferable on purchase. Released February 3, 2023, at an original retail price of $90, with $30 from every print sold going directly to Ukraine. The print was created in conjunction with Nadya Tolokonnikova's "Putin's Ashes" exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in New York. Sold out.
The composition renders a masked Pussy Riot figure in their signature balaclava — mouth open mid-scream, ruffled collar at the neck — gripping a diminished Vladimir Putin by the head, his face emerging from below like something being dragged into the light. The figure is flanked by two smaller balaclava-clad figures in fighting stance. The entire scene is set against an aggressive pink field with ornate floral wallpaper patterning, pierced by spotlights converging on the central figure. The text reads "PUTIN'S ASHES" across the top and "PUSSY RIOT" below it. The palette — hot pinks, flesh tones, black graphic outlines — is deliberately confrontational: feminized, theatrical, and violent all at once.
Print Details
Artists Shepard Fairey / Obey Giant × Nadya Tolokonnikova / Pussy Riot Title "Putin's Ashes (Pussy Riot)" Year 2023 — Released February 3, 2023 Medium Hand-pulled screen print on thick cream Speckletone fine art paper Size 18" × 24" (45.7 × 61 cm) Edition Limited edition of 450 — Hand-numbered (see photos for edition number) Signatures Dual-signed: Shepard Fairey (lower right) and Nadya Tolokonnikova (lower center). Hand-dated by the artist. COA Digital Certificate of Authenticity by Verisart — Transferable on purchase Exhibition "Putin's Ashes" — Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York Charitable Cause $30 from every print sold went to Ukraine Original Retail $90 (sold out) NFT The digital NFT version was collected by 900+ people and raised $10,000+ for Ukraine Framing Unframed — Ships flat Condition Excellent. See photos for full details.Authentication
DUAL-SIGNED: FAIREY + NADYA TOLOKONNIKOVA • NUMBERED /450 • VERISART COA • SOLD OUT- Hand-signed by Shepard Fairey. The artist's signature appears in the lower right margin.
- Hand-signed by Nadya Tolokonnikova. Pussy Riot's co-founder and frontwoman signed in the lower center margin. Tolokonnikova is not an incidental collaborator — she provided the source imagery, directed the visual narrative, and exhibited the full "Putin's Ashes" project at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery. Her signature represents co-authorship, not endorsement.
- Hand-numbered and hand-dated. Edition of 450, individually numbered and dated by the artist.
- Digital Certificate of Authenticity by Verisart. A blockchain-verified COA transferable to the buyer on purchase. Verisart is an established authentication platform used by Fairey and other major contemporary artists for provenance tracking.
About the Work
"Putin's Ashes" exists at the intersection of several things that are not supposed to intersect: fine art and guerrilla protest, gallery exhibitions and prison sentences, screen prints and geopolitics. The print was created as a collaboration between Shepard Fairey and Nadya Tolokonnikova for her solo exhibition at Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in New York — one of the most influential contemporary art galleries in the world. Fairey illustrated from video stills and imagery that Tolokonnikova provided from Pussy Riot's music video of the same name, creating a composition that distills the group's visual identity into a single, confrontational image.
"I have admired Pussy Riot and Nadya Tolokonnikova since I first saw their visually and sonically fierce performances, methods of protest, and messages of social justice. Pussy Riot has been subjected to Putin's brutality and methods of oppression firsthand, so their comments on Putin and the invasion of Ukraine are especially relevant. I'm honored to collaborate with Nadya, who I think is one of the most fearless, articulate, and outspoken multi-media artists and activists working today."
— Shepard Fairey
The composition's visual strategy is deliberate and provocative. The central figure — a balaclava-clad Pussy Riot performer in a ruffled collar, mouth open in defiance — grips Putin's head from above, reducing the leader of a nuclear state to something small, controlled, and subordinate. The flanking figures stand in combat stance, reinforcing the sense of organized, physical resistance. The hot pink palette and ornate floral wallpaper background create a visual register that is simultaneously feminine and aggressive — Fairey and Tolokonnikova weaponizing aesthetics that authoritarian regimes dismiss as unserious. The spotlights converging on the central figure turn the composition into a stage performance, which is exactly what Pussy Riot's interventions have always been: performances in spaces where performance is forbidden.
The print was released in February 2023, almost exactly one year after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The timing was not coincidental. $30 from every print sold went directly to Ukraine. The NFT version was collected by more than 900 people and raised over $10,000 for Ukraine separately. This is a print that functioned as both an art object and a fundraising instrument for an active conflict — a fact that makes it a document of its specific political moment in a way that purely aesthetic prints cannot be.
About Pussy Riot & Nadya Tolokonnikova
Pussy Riot is a Russian feminist protest art collective founded in 2011, known for unauthorized performances in politically charged locations — most famously their 2012 "punk prayer" inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, a protest against the Orthodox Church's support of Putin's presidential campaign.
Nadya Tolokonnikova, co-founder and frontwoman, was arrested for that performance and sentenced to two years in a Russian penal colony. Her imprisonment became an international cause célèbre, drawing support from artists, politicians, and human rights organizations worldwide. After her release, Tolokonnikova continued her activism and art practice, expanding into multimedia work, gallery exhibitions, and collaborations with artists including Shepard Fairey.
Her signature on this print carries a specific weight that most co-signatures do not: it comes from an artist who was imprisoned by the person depicted in the composition. The relationship between Tolokonnikova and this image is not conceptual — it is biographical.
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 evolved into the globally recognized OBEY brand. The 2008 "Hope" poster cemented Fairey's place at the intersection of art, politics, and mass visual culture.
Fairey's collaboration prints — works created with photographers, musicians, and activists — represent a distinct category within his output. They carry dual signatures, tie to specific cultural moments, and often serve charitable causes. The "Putin's Ashes" print sits alongside his Joe Strummer/Strummerville collaboration and his AK-47 Lotus/Brady United edition as prints where art, activism, and fundraising converge. His work is held by the Smithsonian, LACMA, MoMA, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
What Is Included
- Shepard Fairey × Pussy Riot "Putin's Ashes" screen print — 18" × 24" on thick cream Speckletone paper, 2023
- Dual-signed by Shepard Fairey and Nadya Tolokonnikova — Edition of 450
- Digital Certificate of Authenticity by Verisart — Transferable on purchase
Ships unframed, flat, with protective materials.
Who This Is For
This print is ideal for Shepard Fairey collectors seeking his most politically charged work, Pussy Riot and Nadya Tolokonnikova fans, political art and protest art collectors, buyers drawn to prints with charitable provenance tied to an active conflict (Ukraine), contemporary art buyers who follow Jeffrey Deitch Gallery programming, collectors who value dual signatures from two artists with genuine shared convictions rather than commercial co-branding, or anyone seeking a screen print that documents one of the defining geopolitical confrontations of the 2020s through the lens of two of the most prominent activist-artists working today.
This is one of Fairey's most emotionally direct prints. The "DEMAGOGUE" print (also in our store) critiques power from a distance; "Putin's Ashes" depicts someone who was imprisoned by the subject of the critique gripping him by the head. The biographical stakes are not abstract. For collectors building a Fairey political print collection, this piece and "DEMAGOGUE" represent the two sharpest edges of his catalog. Dual-signed, numbered, dated, Verisart COA, sold out at retail. 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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