Art Show By Shepard Fairey And Other 'Artists For Bernie Sanders’ Comes To Boston

February 19, 2016

Greg Cook

"The Art of a Political Revolution" logo designed by Marin Horikawa of Vermont displayed in the window of Los Angeles’ HVW8 gallery in January. (Mike Selsk/Courtesy Bernie Sanders 2016)

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Arriving in Boston this weekend is "The Art of a Political Revolution,” a nationally touring exhibition featuring 37 “Artists for Bernie Sanders” — including Shepard Fairey, the street artist behind the iconic Obama Hope poster from the president’s 2008 campaign, and pop art weirdo Ron English, whose mural of Obama as Abraham Lincoln was plastered along Boston’s Harrison Avenue in 2008.

The posters, graphics, paintings and sculptures — including a Muppet version of the Vermont senator made by Los Angeles artist Donny Miller — are just in Boston briefly. An opening reception will be at the Artists for Humanity Epicenter, 100 W. 2nd St., Boston, from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 19, with music by DJ Kon, Riobamba, Tigerman Whoa, Big Bear and Yvng Pavl. (Note: Artists for Humanity “was rented out by the organizers of the art exhibition. Artists For Humanity does not endorse our rental clients,” the organization explains.) The exhibit continues there through Sunday, Feb. 21, open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. those two days. Admission to it all is free.

Sanders Muppet and "Time" magazine cover by Los Angeles artist Donny Miller. (Courtesy Bernie Sanders 2016)

“It was important for Bernie that if we created art around this campaign and around this movement that it not just be focused around him, that it be around issues important to the artists and to Americans,” Luis Calderin, director of arts and culture for the Sanders presidential campaign, tells me. Calderin grew up in Burlington, Vermont, went to school with Sanders’ kids, and made a career in marketing before joining the Sanders presidential campaign last July.

Issues addressed by the art, Calderin says, range from “racial justice to gun control to creating an opportunity for kids to have an education through free education. There’s a general theme of the country coming together regardless of background.”

The show debuted at Los Angeles’ HVW8 gallery at the end of January, then went to Austin, Texas. It comes to Boston via a partnership between the Sanders campaign, the LA gallery and the Boston sneaker emporium Bodega. There is talk of bringing the exhibit to New York in April.