OBEY WE THE FUTURE The art of Shepard Fairey , which opens on 11 December at the Firmafede Fortress in Sarzana , curated by Gianluca Marziani and Stefano Antonelli , produced and organized by Associazione MetaMorfosi, with the support of the Municipality of Sarzana and the sponsored by the Liguria Region and the Mibact Liguria Regional Museums Directorate, it is an opportunity to meet one of the most famous street artists in the world: the artist who, with the stylized four-color image of Barack Obama entitled Hope, in fact consecrated, even before he was elected, the face of the most famous president of the United States as a world icon. An ideal path in a metaphorical metropolitan night, the Sarzana exhibition is a visual journey that crosses four thematic points: Woman, Environment, Peace, Culture, stimulating reflections on humanitarian issues, on existential passages, on social utopias, on values of justice above the laws .

Thanks to the works on display by the American artist Shepard Fairey , codenamed Obey, we are introduced to his paper universe with an inimitable style, based on Soviet and futurist graphics of the early twentieth century, on Latin American wall paintings, on Italian murals like Mario Sironi . Among the works on display in the rooms of the Firmafede Fortress are some iconic images, such as Hope in which Obey portrayed the future President of the United States Barak Obama in 2008. Not a commission, but spontaneous support for the politician who appreciated the work to the point of writing to the artist, once elected: "I have the privilege of being part of your work of art and I am proud to have your - gno ". The portrait Hope became so famous that it became part of the permanent collection of the National Gallery in Washington and was judged by Peter Schjeldah, art critic of the New Yorker, «the most effective American political illustration since the days of Uncle Sam ".

On display screen prints and lithographs from private collections that make Obey the fluid prototype of the new political artist, because he understood that burning themes are faced with symbols and visual intelligence, with the rapid impact of a message in which to recognize oneself without getting confused.