Earth Crisis (On Wood), 2015

Shepard Fairey's Earth Crisis (2015) is a screenprint on wood panel, number 5 from an edition of just 6. An ornate mandala in teal and gold blooms against a deep navy ground, a globe set within a lotus at its centre and its petals framing small emblems of industry and protest, among them a can of "Paint it Black" oil-based paint and an eye above a falling drop marked "Earth Crisis". From the base of the mandala a beam of light descends to the Eiffel Tower, tying the image to the monumental Earth Crisis globe Fairey suspended inside the tower in November 2015 for the COP21 climate conference in Paris.Fairey (b. 1970) emerged from the skateboarding and punk scenes with the OBEY Giant sticker campaign he began in 1989, and reached a global audience with his 2008 Hope portrait of Barack Obama. His works on wood panel are made in far smaller numbers than his screenprints on paper, and the crackled finish of the surface gives the image the weight and presence of an object.Panel: 24 × 18 in (61 × 46 cm). Signed and numbered 5/6 by the artist. Offered in a wood floater frame.