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# Shepard Fairey “May Day” Mural Is Illegal
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/fairey-may-day-mural-illegal/
- Published: 2010-05-05T22:03:16.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:03:15.000Z
- Description: First spotted by the Animal New York [http://animalnewyork.com/2010/05/is-shepard-faireys-legal-mural-illegal] blog, the New York Times [http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/fairey-mural-gets-thumbs-down-from-buildings-department/] reported that Shepard Fairey’s May Day illegal mural on Hous
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: News, #image-position-hidden, Deitch Projects, Shepard Fairey, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-11-17 09:23 (2009-2011)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2010/05/sm_stopworkorder.jpg)

The “Stop Work Order” posted on the Fairey mural at Houston & the Bowery. (photo via animalnewyork.com)

Just when the world thought Shepard Fairey had sold-out for the sanctioned art world, the [*New York Times*](http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/fairey-mural-gets-thumbs-down-from-buildings-department/?ref=hyperallergic.com) confirmed that the New York City Department of Buildings “issued a stop-work order and an Environment Control Board violation this weekend to Elizabeth Houston Associates, the owner of a building on Houston Street near the Bowery on which Mr. Fairey recently installed a mural connected with his show at Deitch Projects in Soho.”

First spotted by the [Animal New York](http://animalnewyork.com/2010/05/is-shepard-faireys-legal-mural-illegal?ref=hyperallergic.com) blog, the *Times* reported that the violation may cost the artist and his people $25,000 in fines. Considering Fairey’s past legal problems, [clancco.com](http://clancco.com/wp/2010/05/03/shepard-fairey-mural-illegal/?ref=hyperallergic.com) is probably right to assume that “one would think that by now Shepard Fairey would have a lawyer on retainer.”

Does that mean Fairey gets some of his “street cred” back?