NEW YORK—Deitch Projects continues to transition through uncertain times as proprietor Jeffrey Deitch readies for his new job at Los Angeles’s Museum of Contemporary Art, but one thing is certain about the upheaval: Shepard Fairey will have the last show at Deitch’s Wooster Street gallery space. The celebrated street artist announced today on his Web site that his “spring show of new fine art” will debut at the gallery on May 1, a month before Deitch has to dissolve his gallery in order to assume the MOCA directorship.

Contacted in his Los Angeles studio, where he is busy preparing the new work, Fairey said the focus of the show will be portraits of “trailblazers in areas of art and culture who I care about,” from Woodie Guthrie and Debbie Harry to the Dali Lama and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, the last two being staples of his recent work. There will also be several large-scale murals in the space and outdoors as well, which should please fans of Fairey’s rawer street work. “I have a couple of sanctioned spots already mapped out where I can do some nice pieces,” said the artist, who is regularly hit with vandalism charges and was arrested in 2008 while arriving at the opening of his ICA Boston survey. “I have to be careful because I’m still on probation, but we’ll see what other opportunities present themselves.”

Of Deitch, Fairey said the dealer’s move to MOCA is “just what the institution needs,” but that New York may suffer because “Jeffrey’s very wise about creating a scene, bringing music in and doing things that aren’t just wine and cheese, and I don’t think there’s going to be someone else who can do the same thing.” As a sendoff for the space, Fairey is hoping to make the show a blowout. “I try not to half-step on anything I do, but this is definitely nose to the grindstone until May 1,” he said. “Deitch represents two or three of my favorite artists and I only joined up a few years ago, so I feel lucky that I got in by the skin of my teeth.”

courtesy of Art Info