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Fairey’s tale: Graffiti artist Shepard Fairey, below, will be showing his work at the empty retail space at 81 Front St. in DUMBO, above, through July 7.

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Everyone knows to “Obey the Giant.” The stickers, t-shirts and posters baring this slogan are plastered all around the world, and feature a black-and-white illustration of Andre the Giant, the late 500-pound professional wrest­ler. They’re easy to identify, but their creator, graffiti artist Shepard Fairey, isn’t quite as simple to spot.

Fairey, 37, started out painting on the sides of buildings and on bridges, but has since added galleries to his hit list and has seen his career skyrocket. These days, his propaganda-themed multi-media illustrations have garnered not only a major following, but also $40,000 price tags.

Beginning June 22, Fairey brings his work to DUMBO — and this time it’s going on the inside of the buildings. His show, titled “E Pluribus Venom” (meaning, “Out of many, poison”) is part of a dual exhibition running at 81 Front St. and at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Chelsea.

“I did two exhibitions because of my background in street art,” Fairey told GO Brooklyn. “I want my stuff to be accessible and for art not to be intimidating to people. I really felt like I had to do something in Brooklyn that didn’t feel as stuffy as what’s happening in the gallery scene in Chelsea.”

While transforming a vacant DUMBO retail space for the show, Fairey realized what a good fit his exhibit will be for the area. “It’s a really awesome, confrontational space,” Fairey said. “I think the mood, the artsy, entrepreneurial people and the environment of the neighborhood are just perfect for the show.”

The space, owned by Two Trees Management, has hosted art exhibits, but never a long-running show. Zannah Mass, cultural affairs director for the real-estate giant, is thrilled to host Fairey. “He’s essentially activating our space by doing site-specific work,” she said. “And that’s very exciting.”

But for Fairey, the real excitement still lies outside of the gallery. Despite his fame, the spray paint junkie continues to leave his mark on the streets, hoping to break down some of the socio-economic barriers associated with the galleries.

“The problem with art is that the more successful you get, and the higher you go up the pyramid, the fewer people you’re accessible to,” Fairey said, explaining his continued affection for making the street art. “That’s very distressing to me.”

True, he’s not saying “no” to the high rollers buying his canvases, but Fairey continues to produce inexpensive screen prints and T-shirt graphics that most of his fans can afford.

His success also demonstrates to other artists that the potential to move from street artist to mainstream success does exist.

“His stuff has inspired dozens of other artists to join the movement,” said Jake Dobkin, publisher of Streetsy.com, a street art blog. “He is widely considered the most popular artist on the global street art scene, so it’s a treat to have him doing work here in the city.”

Even after being arrested 13 times, Fairey is comfortable using the street as a canvas, despite the potential impermanence of his work. “The odds of survival for most work isn’t that great,” he said. “I’ve accepted that I’m sacrificing whatever I do to the street.”

What Fairey is less accepting of is blatant destruction. “The Splasher,” the infamous paint-throwing vandal of the street art world, defaced most of the Brooklyn street pieces Fairey created earlier this year.

“If you want to critique the absorption of the street art world into the bourgeois system, then say it in a way that’s not just totally destructive and meaningless,” he said. “The Splasher is destroying and not making any contribution. And he’s selective about splashing people who do some of the best work because they’re the ones who succeed commercially. I’m not an anarchist and I don’t believe in destruction for the sake of destruction.”

Even though his work on the street has been prolific, it hasn’t slowed down his growth in the gallery. Fairey calls his DUMBO exhibit the most ambitious and technically challenging collection of his work, bringing together politically oriented themes with a new level of detail.

“I really try to make sure that it doesn’t get muddy by getting too detailed,” he said. “It has to stay iconic. I try to err on the side of stimulating conversation, but not telling people how to think.”

To Fairey, there is a fine line between having a point of view and being didactic. “People like to compartmentalize everything,” he said. “Like, ‘Oh, I’m a street artist, so corporations are evil.’ There is so much more to it than that. It’s an idiotic simplification.”

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper