Shepard Fairey

The Big Picture Artist, pop culture icon and Devo frontman Mark Mothersbaugh and acclaimed poster artist Shepard Fairey combine creative forces with a new two-man exhibit of their distinctive work. The exhibit, which benefits the Art of Elysium, a charity that supports gravely ill children, focuses on their work as artists and philanthropists. Subliminal Projects Gallery, 1331 W. Sunset Blvd., Echo Park. Opening reception Sat. 8-11 p.m. Show runs Tues.-Sat. thru Feb. 19. Free. (213)

Most Americans are familiar with the ubiquitous poster by L.A.-based street artist Shepard Fairey of then-candidate Barack Obama looking off into the distance, pensive yet resolute, with the word "Hope" emblazoned across his chest. No image more clearly captured the excitement and expectations of that historic race. What Americans were not aware of when the posters were first plastered up across the country is that the image was drawn from an Associated Press photograph of Obama at a National Press Club event in 2006.

Shepard Fairey enjoys reaching out to people whose work he admires. When he also forms a personal bond with the person he has approached, he says it feels like "things in the universe are in their correct place. " Which is why the rebellious street artist who skyrocketed to international fame in 2008 with his ubiquitous Obama "Hope" poster is particularly tickled about his budding friendship with actor/comedian/provocateur Russell Brand. Fairey traffics in the iconography of fame, and Brand, in his just-released memoir "Booky Wook 2," is obsessed with fame's machinations and implications.

BOOKS The Young Literati, a core group of supporters in their 20s, 30s and 40s, will be celebrating the Los Angeles Public Library's 139th year in business with a toast, as well as music, drinks and hors d'oeuvres. But nothing can be properly feted in Los Angeles without a few famous friends: Russell Brand, Demetri Martin, Henry Rollins and Shepard Fairey will be on hand for the event, contributing readings, performances and general literary-minded congeniality. Los Angeles Central Library, 630 W. 5th St. 8 p.m. Fri. (213)

The jig is finally up. Shepard Fairey, an Echo Park-based graphic designer and longtime street artist, admitted earlier this month that he submitted false evidence and lied in a copyright lawsuit involving his most famous creation: the "Hope" poster featuring a stark red-white-and-blue image of Barack Obama. The Associated Press had always maintained that Fairey created the image by essentially tracing over a close-up photograph of Obama taken by an AP contract photographer, Mannie Garcia, in 2006.

A battery of fluorescent lights blazes in an emptied retail space on Vine Street in Hollywood. Once home to the discount emporium Big Lots, the cavernous building has been gutted of housewares and transformed into Manifest Equality, a temporary art show running through the weekend. Pulling together a large number of works addressing themes of equality, justice, unity and love, the pop-up event intends to spotlight civil rights issues surrounding Proposition 8, which, since passing in 2008, has prohibited marriage between homosexual partners in California.

A widely watched court case about fair use, based on artist Shepard Fairey's claim that he had the right to use a news photo to create his Barack Obama "Hope" poster, now appears to have nearly collapsed. His attorneys -- led by Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University -- said that they would withdraw from the case and that the artist had misled them by fabricating information and destroying other material. Fairey, 39, a Los Angeles-based street artist with a long, often proud history of breaking rules, admitted that he didn't use the Associated Press photo of Obama seated next to actor George Clooney he originally said his work was based on -- which he contended would have been covered under "fair use," the legal claim that allows exceptions to using copyrighted work without having to pay for it. Instead he used a picture the AP has maintained was his source -- a solo photo of the future president that is seemingly closer to Fairey's red, white and blue image of Obama, with the caption "HOPE."

Shepard Fairey, a Los Angeles-based "street artist," has made a career out of recycling other people's images. His admirers say he uses familiar visual icons as a vehicle for political and cultural commentary, often in an arresting and subversive way. His critics cast his efforts in a more negative light, accusing him of blatantly plagiarizing images created by other artists, giving them neither credit nor royalties from the sales of his posters and...