Mei Fung and MaryAnn Giella McCulloh (Image Credit: PMC / Jared Siskin)
Shepard Fairey’s Artworks (Image Credit: PMC / Jared Siskin)
Chuck Connelly’s Artworks (Image Credit: PMC / Jared Siskin)
Al Diaz / SAMO© Artworks (Image Credit: PMC / Jared Siskin)
From OBEY to SAMO: One Art Space Tribeca Highlights Street Art Legends, Curated by MaryAnn Giella McCulloh
NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, July 16, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — At the 2026 Hamptons Fine Art Fair, One Art Space took a prominent role with a specially curated display headlined by globally renowned artist Shepard Fairey—whose work recently appeared on the cover of Time Magazine—alongside pieces by Al Diaz and Chuck Connelly, held at the Southampton Fairgrounds. This major summer art gathering in the Hamptons drew galleries, collectors, and artists for four days of modern and contemporary art in Southampton, resulting in nearly all works at the gallery’s booth being sold, with every Shepard Fairey piece completely sold out.
MaryAnn Giella McCulloh of One Art Space curated the presentation, framing three artists through the potent vocabulary of street art and urban visual culture: Fairey as a forward-looking force, Diaz as the current moment, and Connelly as a crucial link to expressive traditions. Together, the artworks sparked a dialogue about how art born on the streets, in studios, and amid the charged atmosphere of public life can transition from provocation to lasting significance.
Fairey, famous for the OBEY campaign and the iconic Barack Obama “Hope” image, anchors the selection with the graphic punch, cultural immediacy, and political relevance that have made him one of the most distinctive visual voices of his era. Diaz brings the collection firmly into the present through his legacy as a pioneering New York street artist and co-creator of the influential SAMO© project with Jean-Michel Basquiat, along with his current text-driven works that turn New York City “Wet Paint” signs into socially reflective anagrams and installations. Connelly completes the trio by representing the expressive and tumultuous past that helped shape the visual energy from which later street and post-street movements emerged, with his Neo-Expressionist sensibility, restless gestures, raw emotion, and psychological intensity offering a compelling contrast to Fairey’s graphic precision and Diaz’s verbal immediacy. Together, these three artists build a cross-generational conversation, showing how artistic rebellion can move from walls and public language to brushwork, memory, and an enduring refusal to conform.
Artist Shepard Fairey stated, “One Art Space continues to support my work by having a showcase of pieces available and on view at the Hamptons Fine Art Fair. I aim to draw people in with the beauty of an image and leave them with a deeper message, and all of the works presented are a great example of that philosophy.”
Curator MaryAnn Giella McCulloh commented, “One Art Space has always believed in showing artists whose work carries a point of view. For Hamptons Fine Art Fair, we wanted to bring together three artists who each changed the conversation in a different way. Shepard Fairey brings a global visual language; Al Diaz brings the living DNA of New York street culture and Chuck Connelly brings the raw power of painting as resistance. Together, they tell a story about where street art came from, where it stands now and where it is going.”
Among the notable figures at the opening night VIP reception were: MaryAnn Giella McCulloh, Mei Fung, Carmen D’Alessio, Donna Rubin, Jean Shafiroff, Rebecca Seawright, Ashley Medici, Rick Friedman, and Cindy Lou Wakefield.
About One Art Space:
Founded in May 2011 in the heart of Tribeca, One Art Space has served as a distinctive venue for both museum-caliber and emerging artists for 15 years, led by co-owners and female gallerists MaryAnn Giella McCulloh and Mei Fung, who bring together business expertise with art and curatorial experience. Situated at 23 Warren Street in New York City, the gallery occupies a flexible ground-floor space with a glass front, allowing natural light and an inviting street view. This unique, adaptable exhibition space provides an ideal setting for both the artwork and the artist to stand out.
MaryAnn’s creative background originates from her father, Joe Giella, a renowned Batman illustrator hired by Stan Lee, whose artwork appeared on two USPS stamps issued in 2006 as part of the DC Comics Superheroes release (The Green Lantern and The Flash). The gallery’s programming combines storied figures from New York’s art scene—most recently Al Diaz, internationally famous street artists like Shepard Fairey, and abstract contemporary painters such as Andrew Salgado, featuring a solo exhibition of works by Purvis Young—while building on over a decade of exhibitions dedicated to supporting women artists. Previous celebrity attendees at exhibitions have included Alec Baldwin, Spike Lee, and Ice-T.
One Art Space’s mission is to create a place where the giants of art history and the visionaries of art’s future come together in One Art Space.
For further details, please visit: www.oneartspace.com
IG: @oneartspace | FB: OneArtSpaceNYC | X/T: @oneartspace
About Shepard Fairey:
A central figure in contemporary street art, Shepard Fairey first gained international attention with his 1989 “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” sticker campaign, which later evolved into the iconic OBEY visual movement. His work merges graphic design, propaganda imagery, political critique, and popular culture, most famously through his Barack Obama “Hope” poster. Fairey’s art shows how a single image can travel from the street to the museum wall while continuing to challenge authority and influence.
For more information about the artist, please visit: www.obeygiant.com
About Al Diaz:
A longtime fixture of the downtown art scene, Al Diaz began writing graffiti at age 12 and rose to prominence through SAMO©, the cryptic street-poetry collaboration with Jean-Michel Basquiat. His work has evolved into a multi-layered examination of power, consumerism, and cultural decay, echoing the rise and fall of urban empires. Diaz’s art remains a powerful reminder that language and rebellion can endure even as paint on a wall.
For more information about the artist, please visit: www.al-diaz.com
About Chuck Connelly:
A raw and uncompromising voice in American painting, Chuck Connelly emerged from the New York art world of the 1980s with an expressive style that blended figuration, abstraction, and psychological intensity. His paintings turn memory, conflict, and restless observation into charged visual narratives. Connelly’s work illustrates that art can live not only on public walls, but also in the brushstroke and the refusal to be contained.
For more information about the artist, please visit: www.chuckconnelly.org
ABOUT Hamptons Fine Art Fair:
Hamptons Fine Art Fair is staged in a 70,000-square-foot pavilion complex on 17 acres at the Southampton Fairgrounds. Led by Rick Friedman, Executive Director, the fair is positioned as more than a commercial art show, and is a major summer destination for collectors, galleries, artists, and cultural tastemakers.
For more information, please visit: www.hamptonsfineartfair.com
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