Artist of Obama icon arrested

BOSTON (AP) | A Los Angeles man famous for his red, white and blue “Hope” posters of President Obama has been arrested on warrants accusing him of tagging property with graffiti, police said Saturday.

Shepard Fairey was arrested Friday night on his way to the Institute of Contemporary Art for a kickoff event for his first solo exhibition, called “Supply and Demand.”

Two warrants were issued for Mr. Fairey on Jan. 24 after police determined two locations had been vandalized by his graffiti, based on the Andre the Giant “street art” campaign from his early career, Officer James Kenneally said.

One of the locations was the railroad trestle by the landmark Boston University bridge over the Charles River, police said.

Mr. Fairey, 38, is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Brighton District Court, said Jake Wark, a spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney. Mr. Wark said Mr. Fairey also would be arraigned on a default warrant related to a separate graffiti case in the Roxbury section of Boston.

Mr. Fairey has spent the past two weeks in the Boston area installing the exhibit and creating outdoor art, including a 20-foot-by-50-foot banner on the side of City Hall, according to a statement Saturday by the museum.

The museum said Mr. Fairey was released a few hours after his arrest. Boston police confirmed Mr. Fairey had been released, but did not know exactly when or the amount of his bail.

A man who answered the phone at Mr. Fairey’s Los Angeles studio, Studio One, declined to comment.

Mr. Fairey’s publicist and a California lawyer who has represented Mr. Fairey in a copyright case didn’t immediately respond to e-mails seeking comment.

Mr. Fairey has been arrested numerous times for drawing on buildings and other private property without permission.

His Obama image has been sold on hundreds of thousands of stickers and posters, and was unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington before Mr. Obama’s inauguration.

The image is the subject of a copyright dispute with the Associated Press. Mr. Fairey argues his use of the AP photo is protected by “fair use,” which allows exceptions to copyright laws based on, among other factors, how much of the original is used, what the new work is used for and how the original is affected by the new work.

A California lawyer who has represented Mr. Fairey in the copyright case didn’t immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the arrest.