Iconic ‘Hope’ portrait from Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign is displayed for Expo Chicago

The iconic red and blue “Hope” portrait of former President Barack Obama from his 2008 presidential campaign is one of the many pieces of art displayed as part of Expo Chicago.

The portrait was created by Los Angeles-based artist Shepard Fairey, whose work was previously featured on album covers and alternative weeklies, as well as on walls and billboards all over LA.

Fairey created the image of then-Senator Obama in 2008 as a form of grassroots activism to support Obama’s first campaign, according to the Art Institute. Fairey, a street artist who has been both arrested for graffiti and had his work shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, based the work on an Associated Press photograph by Mannie Garcia, which he transformed with a stencil technique.

The “Hope” piece is later set to go to auction as part of the Heritage Auctions Modern & Contemporary Prints & Multiples collection, but will be available for public viewing for a few days as part of the international exposition of contemporary and modern art.

Heritage Auctions, 222 W. Hubbard St. Ste 110; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on April 5-8 and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on April 9. More information at expochicago.com

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