The Landmarks art project to create a mural by street artist Shepard Fairey has been postponed until further notice. The work was intended for the Art Building (ART) at The University of Texas at Austin and would have been created today (March 19).
The artist approached the College of Fine Arts with an idea to create a mural on one of its buildings earlier this month.
“We jumped at the opportunity and set the wheels in motion to take advantage of his offer,” says Landmarks director Andrée Bober. “Shepard’s work is important and perfectly suited to our program, but it was ambitious to try to pull it off in just one week. Unfortunately, we ran out of time.”
Doug Dempster, dean of the College of Fine Arts, would like to reschedule the event.
“We would still like to see his work here on campus, but the compressed schedule makes it too difficult at this time,” Dempster said. “As dean of Fine Arts, I felt that we were rushing the process with an important artist and an important installation. I decided that it would be better to slow down and proceed in a more deliberate fashion. I’m sorry that we could not move fast enough for this project to happen.”
Zarathustra James, Fairey’s representative said it was “great of Landmarks to welcome Fairey’s work,” but that they understood the logistical challenges.
“Shepard would definitely be interested in a future project,” said James. “With a little more planning, he’ll even be able to get involved with the faculty and students.”
