LOS ANGELES, CA.- Subliminal Projects is presenting Modular Frequency, an exhibition by gallery founder Shepard Fairey. This show features eighteen new mixed-media works, highlighting the artist’s latest explorations in visual distillation and synthesis. Fairey merges imagery, symbols, and text into modular geometric compositions, creating a resonant visual language that bridges abstraction, design, and cultural commentary.
For over three decades, modular, geometric, and patterned designs have been at the heart of Fairey’s practice, evolving from bold graphic-based street campaigns into intricate, layered mixed-media compositions. Drawing inspiration from Soviet Constructivism, Russian propaganda, and contemporary pop culture, Fairey organizes the chaos of pervasive imagery into structured forms. “I’m confronted with an overwhelming number of images and messages daily, forcing me to make sense of things and organize my ideas,” Fairey explains. “I embrace this process of distillation as inspiration—to navigate the world and create art with intention.”
In addition to the new works, the exhibition includes unique works on paper, retired stencils, prints on wood, mono-engravings, and Hand-Painted Multiples (HPMs). Coinciding with the opening, Fairey will release two limited edition screen prints and a letterpress print, translating the energy and rhythm of the new series into collectible forms.
As a unified body of work, Modular Frequency engages viewers in an aesthetic “frequency”—an ideal rhythm and harmony that celebrates political and artistic icons, as well as archetypes of peace, justice, and environmental responsibility.
Shepard Fairey was born in Charleston, S.C. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence,R.I. In 1989 he created the “Andre the Giant has a Posse” sticker that transformed into the OBEY GIANT art campaign and has since become one of the most sought-after and provocative artists globally, changing the way people converse about art and view urban landscapes. His art has evolved into an acclaimed body of work, which includes the 2008 “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama, found at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. His iconic “We the People” poster series sparked international dialogue about equality during the 2017 Women’s Marches and represents the values he thinks American politics should uphold.
In addition to his activism and guerrilla street art presence, the artist has executed more than 140 large-scale painted public murals around the world. His works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery, the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and many others.
