In which I finally see the Shepard Fairey exhibit at the ICA

Once when we were eating lunch at our favorite place in Chinatown, Maggie pointed out a Shepard Fairey graffiti on the building across the street. I said "Oooh" and felt cultured.

On Saturday I finally made it to the ICA to see his exhibit.

The Andre The Giant stuff, the various portraits, record covers, concert posters -- these were all cool. Bold, clean lines on hyperdetailed mini-image collages could keep your eyes interested for hours. I'm not a museum person and suspected I'd feel self-conscious "looking at art," but the detail in the stuff made me want to examine it. I don't much care about the "meaning" of a piece as much as I liked to get right up close to see how he put them together.

But while I was looking at this stuff -- which was cool & interesting but only cool & interesting -- the Obama Hope poster was on my mind. Would it be there? Or was the little Obama portrait in the portait room with Johnny Cash and MLK all I was going to get?

The exhibit didn't disappoint, of course: the Hope poster is there -- it has a wall to itself and is much bigger than I imagined. I pretended not to be phased by it as I walked up to have a look, but it has the wow factor the other pieces lack. I felt very satisfied to see in person one of the most famous images in the world.

While the Fairey exhibit spanned four or five large rooms and showcased dozens of pieces (several as big as highway billboards), the rest of the museum was pretty skimpy. But Chris reminded me that the ICA isn't strictly a museum -- I guess there's other things going on on the other floors.

The building is art in its own right. It sits right on Boston Harbor and has huge glass walls that offer a mesmirizing view of the city.

All in all a worthwhile visit.