Shepard Fairey

ART The director Morgan Spurlock's debut exhibit as an art curator, "New Blood," lasers attention on his favorite themes of consumerism and media.It features work from L.A. fine art and street art staples, including Camille Rose Garcia, Shepard Fairey, Gary Baseman and many others. Thinkspace Gallery, 6009 Washington Blvd., Culver City. 8 p.m. Sat. thinkspacegallery.com.

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)

Even in the Age of Gaga it's still necessary to remind the world that female artists face barriers. Yes, women are free to wear a meat dress or express themselves in any artistic way imaginable, which is an important, tectonic shift from the rigidity of decades past — but they are still struggling to pierce the armor plating of art's most sacred institutions. According to feminist artist and educator Judy Chicago, only 3% to 5% of artwork on display in the permanent collections of most major museums is by a female artist.

The obvious, already-engaged debate about "Art in the Streets," the show that L.A.'s Museum of Contemporary Art bills as "the first major U.S. museum exhibition on the history of graffiti and street art," is whether the genre deserves to be certified as museum-quality or decried as vandalism. But look beneath that surface, and the show at MOCA's Geffen Contemporary also poses questions that have roiled the museum world for the better part of a decade. In planning and executing an exhibition, when is it OK for a nonprofit art museum to forge ties with a profit-seeking art entrepreneur?

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.

Reporting from San Diego ? Only a few weeks after Shepard Fairey finished work on a mural covering the side of an Urban Outfitters store here, someone else made his or her mark on top of it, sullying its crisp black, white and red graphics with a sprawling blue tag. The Fairey mural had been commissioned as part of the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego's exhibition "Viva la Revolución: A Dialogue With the Urban Landscape. " The graffiti response was anonymous and unsolicited. Not exactly the kind of dialogue the museum had in mind, but also not entirely unexpected.

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.

If you've driven along Melrose Avenue in the last couple of weeks, you probably have noticed a new outdoor mural on the north side of the street near Ogden Avenue, across from Fairfax High School. The recognizable mash-up of pop-psychedelic images -- including an elephant, a lotus flower and "Obey" logos -- point to only one source: Shepard Fairey, the popular and controversial L.A. street artist. Fairey and his team of artists created the 56-by-18-foot painting on the exterior of De La Barracuda, a clothing, hair and art gallery space frequented by über-hip trendsetters.