DAVID CHOE (US)
David Choe is from Los Angeles of Korean decent, and considered one of the most creative talents of his generation. His fine art works are exhibited in galleries internationally, and he works in disciplines such as photography, writing, illustration and graphic design aswell as street art and graffiti. Choe has been commissioned for several high-profiled clients, including Jay-Z, Linkin Park, then senator Barack Obama, and more infamously, Facebook's headquarters. His influences are comic books, gothic art, impressionism and the surreal, to mention just a few. His characteristic figure, the bucktoothed whale has been with him since he was a teenager.
Mixing techniques, Choe’s style is one of a kind. Dirty style. The process may seem dirty and chaotic, but beauty almost always emerges from the mess. His style is raw and grimy, impulsive and energetic. Desire and degradation are frequent themes in his works. Refinement and vulgarity, brutally true and unreal at the same time – it’s all possible in Choe`s art. David Choe himself might consider graffiti as something separated from his own work, but everything he does is deeply rooted in graffiti culture. For Choe graffiti is “destructive, anarchist, political, spiritual, and mostly just fun.” . Freedom of speech appears in graffiti as words and pictures. Choe says he makes art because he has no other choice. He can’t imagine life without art, it saved him from death or more likely, becoming a hardened criminal. Mostly, the art is the way David Choe lives his life, how he experiences and consciously creates every day and ultimately, how he shares it with us.
