Image: Obey (Shepard Fairey), MOD / Wide Awake (detail), 2023 © Obey Giant Art Inc.
Gallerie d’Italia - Napoli is showing 'OBEY: Power to the peaceful', an exhibition dedicated to American artist Shepard Fairey, better known as OBEY, until 6 September 2026, having opened on 6 May. It is curated by Giuseppe Pizzuto, cofounder and director of Wunderkammern, and made with that Rome-based contemporary art gallery, part of Gruppo Deodato, which represents and promotes the artist in Italy. With three weeks left, the show is in its final stretch.
The exhibition brings together more than 100 works, ranging from unique pieces and screenprints to hand-finished prints and works on different supports. According to the museum, the display traces some of the central concerns in Fairey’s practice, including the relationship between power and communication, the construction of consensus, struggles for justice and the role of communities as agents of change.
Fairey, born in Charleston in 1970, is identified on the museum site as one of the most influential figures in contemporary urban art. His visual language emerged from skate culture and 1990s underground graphics, and the exhibition text highlights how he has built a highly recognizable public-art vocabulary through posters, screenprints and murals seen in cities around the world. The museum says his work adapts the codes of propaganda into tools for social criticism and political awareness.
The show’s title points to a central theme: peace as an active choice and a collective responsibility. The museum frames the project against a present marked by conflict, geopolitical tension and broad social change, and says Fairey’s work invites viewers to imagine spaces of dialogue, solidarity and transformation. The artist’s language is described as essential and bold, drawing inspiration from 20th-century avant-garde and propaganda art, from Futurism to Russian Constructivism.
Naples itself is presented as a fitting setting for the exhibition. The museum describes the city, with its history of contrasts and renewal, as a natural backdrop for the project’s reflection on art as voice, conscience and transformative force. The institution’s online listing also notes the opening-day period and practical details for visitors, including ticket prices and the availability of a catalogue published by Allemandi.
A signing event with Shepard Fairey was held on 5 May, the day before the opening. Admission is 8 euros full and 4 euros reduced, free for members, schools, under-26s and Intesa Sanpaolo Group customers, and the exhibition runs until 6 September 2026.
