LG OLED x Shepard Fairey at Frieze LA paired striking imagery with cutting-edge display technology

by: Jonathan Bell 

LG teamed up with artist Shepard Fairey at Frieze LA 2024 to showcase the quality of its ultra-high resolution OLED evo G and evo C televisions, animating his work like never before.

In partnership with LG OLED

LG is making great steps in display technology. Earlier this year, the company revealed the future of home entertainment in the form of its SIGNATURE OLED T, the world’s first wireless transparent OLED television. This flagship device combines LG’s wireless video and audio transmission tech with a revolutionary 77in transparent OLED 4K screen, creating a canvas for content that blends seamlessly into an interior.

At the 2024 Frieze Los Angeles art fair, the capabilities of LG’s OLED evo G and evo C televisions were put to the test via a collaboration with American artist and social activist Shepard Fairey. LG OLED x Shepard Fairey was a unique platform for the artist’s work, an installation space that allowed Fairey to create new perspectives on his guerrilla street-art aesthetic, using the dynamic picture qualities of LG’s OLED technology alongside moving elements that blur the boundaries between physical and digital art.

Fairey, 54, studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, developing an aesthetic that combines graphic art, graffiti techniques, signage, murals and print-making to make prominent social and political statements that reach across a wide audience. He came to global prominence with his 2008 Hope poster depicting Barack Obama, an image that became an instantly recognisable symbol of a new era of activism and awareness. His work is held by the Smithsonian, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Victoria & Albert Museum, amongst others.

For this collaboration with LG, Fairey explored new ways of using his work to communicate with the audience, in particular highlighting ‘barriers to peace and justice in the face of current social issues’. The artist also created a new rendition of his 2018 piece, Damaged Wrong Path, incorporating a number of OLED TVs into the artwork in order to emphasise detail, complexity and bring a dynamic new layer of motion. LG OLED’s trademark rich colour depth, deep blacks and crisp imagery helped transform Fairey’s vivid collages. The imagery was processed by LG’s new Alpha11 AI processor, which offers a four-fold increase in computing power over its predecessor.

Fairey shares, ‘I’m well aware that most people experience art secondhand on screens. I want to maximise the potential of art living on screens, so it’s logical for me to collaborate with LG using some of their most advanced screen technology as a showcase for my work.’

LG OLED’s brighter screens also feature unique functions like Object Enhancing, which adds depth and realism to two-dimensional imagery. In addition, the Alpha11 processor enables AI Director Processing, a high-level imaging system that uses AI and colour theory to enhance the visual – and therefore emotional – register of a scene.

This new installation highlights LG’s ongoing OLED Art initiative, a programme that explores how technology can drive artistic innovation. LG OLED makes for a perfect digital canvas, a new way of viewing work that challenges artists, curators, and collectors to take different perspectives on the display and interaction with both analogue and digital artworks. 

Working with Fairey created a new level of integration between the artwork and the physical installation space, enhancing engagement and impact. Sitting at the intersection of art and technology, LG OLED at Frieze Los Angeles provoked and inspired.  

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