But considering the Fairey work hanging indoors, let’s just say if Meg and Jack White happened to be in town checking out Fairey’s show, it would take some effort to distinguish the tri-chromatic rockers from the paintings. Three colors - red, black, and off-white - dominate the art. The “duality of humanity” idea is ever-present and pretty blatant: take the soldier shouldering a lei of bullets and a peace sign necklace, or the child-soldier carrying a gun and wearing a flower tucked in his uniform hat.

There’s not a ton left to interpret, and his message comes across quickly and effectively, which makes sense considering his style was created for the street rather than the gallery wall. His images were designed to catch someone’s eye speeding by on a bus and to serve as an in-your-face statement against lifeless city buildings.

Cost of Oil depicts a shorthaired American guy next to his Hummer, license plate reading “Freedom Isn’t Free,” and gas pump held aloft, triumphant. Red paint drips toward the bottom, hardly subtle, and the work asks, “What is the Cost of Oil?” Rays shine from the gas nozzle, as they do from power points in several works, be it the scarlet flower held by a pachyderm’s trunk in Elephant or the dove cupped in the tiny hand of a Maoist girl. The emanations seem to offer a hopeful energy to scenes of satire, frustration, irony, and fascism.

My favorite pieces are similarly based on striking and obvious contrasts. Evolve/Devolve brings some rare orange into the show, with a burning oil rig and ominous oil derrick pumping away on the far right, all surveyed by a vulture, and a windmill spinning in la-la-la peace amid the petroleum apocalypse over on the left. As with other pieces, collaged scraps of old newspapers provide a related context beneath the surface scene - this one has a quite prominent headline: “Report absolves oil traders.” AK-47 vs. M-16 is another painting I covet: the barrels of two standard war artillery become vases, the AK hosts a red rose, and the M16 supports a white lily. Flower power, Obey Nation style.

Speaking of typical Fairey iconography, Andre the Giant makes an obligatory appearance in possibly all the works: on the buttons of a Chinese jacket, in the headscarf of a Muslim woman, and as signature wallpaper adding to the collage behind the stencils and brushstrokes. Other reminders of Fairey’s emergence from the mid-'80s skate scene include a painting of Tony Alva - one of the original Z-Boys - skating a pool, middle finger extended, and Bones, which includes the Ripper skull amid shout-outs to Suicidal Tendencies and Black Flag. Upstairs was a little floor altar of empty Coronas and brown-bagged cans - I couldn’t determine whether the display was intentional and meant to conjure a local skate park, or whether the gallery neglected to take out all the recycling from the recent, line-around-the-block reception.

The show’s only up through the first week of October, but keep your eyes open while traversing the city, not only for government surveillance cameras and other watchful signs of Big Brother but for Obey-brand dissent as well. One of the dudes who hung Peace Bomber on my house said when they went to NYC recently they saw a piece they’d pasted up five years ago that was still alive and well. It would be nice if the war was over by another five, and I can’t help but wonder what, at that point, we’ll think of “Obama: Hope."

"SHEPARD FAIREY: THE DUALITY OF HUMANITY”
Through Oct. 4
Tues.– Sat., noon-7 p.m., free
Shooting Gallery
839 Larkin, SF
(415) 931-8035
White Walls
835 Larkin, SF
(415) 931-1500