Facing the Giant: Three Decades of Dissent

Facing the Giant: Three Decades of Dissent used thirty hand-painted multiples made in 2019 to reconsider imagery spanning Shepard Fairey's work from 1989 through 2019. Organized by Landau Traveling Exhibitions with OBEY GIANT ART, the touring presentation had two documented 2026 occurrences: the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art in Auburn and the Lyman Allyn Art Museum in New London.

The Auburn museum gives its run as January 20 through May 9. Its illustrated selections identify works including Nixon Money, Angela, and Exclamation as 2019 silkscreen and mixed-media collage works on paper. The New London host gives June 6 through September 6 and describes two local-collection prints in addition to the touring group. These local differences are important: a shared show identity need not imply an identical checklist at every venue.

Auburn’s illustrated selection also includes Obey Star, O.G. Rips, and Andre Psychedelic. Set beside Angela and Nixon Money, those titles suggest the breadth of the survey’s reference points, from OBEY’s own recurring identity to named political and cultural subjects. The museum labels all six illustrated selections as 2019 works numbered 1/19, giving the comparison a shared production framework rather than implying that they were made in six different years.

The distinction between image history and object history is central to understanding the presentation. A composition first associated with an earlier moment can be revisited through a later hand-worked object. The image's original circulation and the multiple's physical production are related histories, but they are not the same date. Seeing them together can make repetition an instrument of reflection rather than evidence of simple duplication.

Hand intervention introduces another question. A multiple belongs to a repeatable framework, while collage or stencil work can give an individual sheet its own material character. The interest lies in the relationship between the shared image and the particular object, not in assuming that every impression is either completely identical or wholly unique. Precise edition information therefore remains necessary even when an exhibition groups the works under a common title.

The touring structure similarly balances continuity and variation. The thirty-work core supplies a recognizable project, while host institutions can provide distinct local contexts. Two galleries inside the Auburn museum remain one venue occurrence; two separate museums remain two occurrences. This preserves the actual geography of the presentation without inflating the show count.