2nd Edition Special Anniversary Black & White Edition THE PHILOSOPHY OF OBEY (i.e. Obey Giant / Shepard Fairey) is one of the fundamental texts of 21st Century aesthetics - short, bold, candid, puzzling and remarkable in its power to stir the imagination of philosophers and artists alike. Arguably one of the most compelling works of philosophy and art written in the twentieth-first century, Philosophy of Obey is the only artistic - philosophical work that Obey has published during its campaign. Written in short, carefully crafted sentences of extremely revealing candor, it will capture the imagination of a generation of Street Artists and philosophers.
For Obey, discourse is something we use to examine reality which is in itself both elusive and unobtainable. Obey famously summarized this book in the following words: I aim to bring something new to every artwork. The work is prefaced by Sarah Jaye Williams introduction to the first edition. Obey Giant (1989 2008) is regarded by many as one of the most significant street art campaigns.
This book is a work of theoretical philosophy, contemporary art, and contemporary art history. Any illegal activity or actions deduced or derived from this work is entirely inappropriate and beyond the scope and intent of either the author or publisher.
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About the Author: Sarah Jaye Williams aka LG Williams is an heir to the West Coast and Beat generation art, and is one of the youngest members of the Rat Bastard Protective Association, whose membership included Bruce Connor, Wally Hedrick, Jay DeFeo, and Manuel Neri. Williams received his M.F.A. from the University of California, Davis - nearly twenty years after the school's most famous graduate Bruce Nauman. He has showed at many national and international venues, among them The Internet Pavilion of La Biennale Di Venezia 2011, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, di Rosa Art Preserve, Klaipedos Kultury Komunikacijy Centras, Ludwig Forum Aachen, Super Window Project, Gloria Maria Gallery, Lance Fung Gallery, and Steven Wirtz Gallery.
Reviews featuring Williams have appeared in Artforum, Art Issues, Art Week, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, La Stampa, Japan Times, Huffington Post, Purple.fr, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Maui Weekly, Java Magazine, and Glass Magazine. Art historian Thomas Frangenberg (University of Leicester), wrote the catalogue essay for Anthology: 1985-2012, Williams' mid-career retrospective in Milan; and Donald Preziosi (University of California Los Angeles), featured Williams' artwork in his 2014 monograph Art, Religion, Amnesia: The Enchantments of Credulity (Routledge).
Williams curated Wally Hedrick's War Room for The 2003 San Francisco International Art Fair, the first time this "significant item of Bay Area art history" had been exhibited since 1967. In 2009 Cengage Learning / Wadsworth published Williams's Drawing Upon Art: A Workbook for Gardner's Art Through the Ages - an innovative pedagogical tool designed to facilitate learning art history through drawing. During 2010-11 Williams was the art critic for The Tokyo Weekender, the oldest free English publication in Japan. In 2016, Williams' publishing house PCP Press released Dave Hickey's Wasted Words and Dust Bunnies compiled and edited by art historian Julia Friedman.
Williams has taught studio art, art history, art appreciation, and graphic design courses since 1990 with programs such as The University of California, Davis, University of Southern California, California College of the Arts, Arizona State University, and The University of Hawaii.
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