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Shepard Fairey & Damien Hirst — Troubled Waters

Troubled Waters

2025

Troubled Waters stands as one of the most dynamic pieces in the Triple Trouble collection, merging Shepard Fairey's street-art sensibility with Damien Hirst's iconic visual language into a single charged canvas. The combination of acrylic, spray paint, and enamel-coated card creates a layered tension between the raw immediacy of urban mark-making and the polished, commercial finish associated with Hirst's studio practice. Fairey's signature bold linework and propaganda-poster aesthetic collide with Hirst's spot or pharmaceutical motifs, producing a work that feels simultaneously urgent and meditative. The title itself evokes instability and crisis, themes both artists have long navigated — Hirst through mortality and institutional critique, Fairey through political dissent and the OBEY movement. Together, the piece functions as a visual manifesto about navigating uncertainty in contemporary culture.

Medium
Acrylic, spray paint and enamel coated card on canvas
Dimensions

Notes

Triple collaboration: Shepard Fairey x Damien Hirst x Invader

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About this work

Shepard Fairey & Damien Hirst, Troubled Waters, 2025

Troubled Waters stands as one of the most dynamic pieces in the Triple Trouble collection, merging Shepard Fairey's street-art sensibility with Damien Hirst's iconic visual language into a single charged canvas. The combination of acrylic, spray paint, and enamel-coated card creates a layered tension between the raw immediacy of urban mark-making and the polished, commercial finish associated with Hirst's studio practice. Fairey's signature bold linework and propaganda-poster aesthetic collide with Hirst's spot or pharmaceutical motifs, producing a work that feels simultaneously urgent and meditative. The title itself evokes instability and crisis, themes both artists have long navigated — Hirst through mortality and institutional critique, Fairey through political dissent and the OBEY movement. Together, the piece functions as a visual manifesto about navigating uncertainty in contemporary culture.

Medium
Acrylic, spray paint and enamel coated card on canvas
Dimensions
333 x 488 cm
Year
2025
Seen at
HENI, London, United Kingdom

Related themes

American, Cool Tones, Mixed Media, Street Art Influence, 2020s, Social Commentary, Abstract Expressionism, Gestural Abstraction, Contemporary Art, Expressionist Style, Troubled Mood

More works by Shepard Fairey

Collected by

Alex Capecelatro, Hamilton Selway Gallery