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D FACE
I was born and raised in London by hard working parents who claimed they found me in a pack of cereal sometime in the late 70's. My mother worked in a bank my father worked as a panel beater and bodywork sprayer, so I grew up to the smell of paint.
My first experience of unsanctioned art was drawing on my parents wall with a crayon aged 7, I knew it was wrong, but it felt so much more interesting and exciting than the colouring books my parents gave me. Ironically my Mum later bought me the book ‘Spray can art’, which was like eye candy to a visually starving kid, she had no idea the influence this book would have.
I disliked school, I had a very clever sister who from an early age showed she was the academic one and it was quickly apparent I was never going to be the 'doctor or lawyer' in the family, besides i'd already decided to carve my own path in life. I have always been fascinated with cartoons and America culture, which at the time - early 80's - seemed a million miles away to a kid growing up in London, England. My mum, always keen to broaden my education and still coming to terms with the fact academic studies weren't my calling, used to regularly take my sister and I to London art galleries, early on I was introduced to the Pop Art of Roy Lichtenstein, Keith Haring and Andy Warhol and it had immediate appeal, it directly translated into my life; the comic book appropriated imagery, public murals and instant in your face imagery that hung on the white gallery walls seemed so much more approachable than the heavily worked oil portraits or landscapes my mum used to insist was 'proper art'.
As I grew older skateboarding and punk music took over my life, Thrasher magazine and traveling around London on my skateboard became my education. Skating, the graffiti on the walls I saw as I traveled through London and the graphics that filled the advertising pages of Thrasher directed my life, particularly the work of Jim Philips, Vernon Courtland Johnson and the album artwork by Winston Smith and Raymond Pettibon were a huge influence.
I managed to get myself through school, as expected I didn't 'excel' in the ‘academic’ subjects, due to skating, graffiti and a general disrespect of authority, but with the few qualifications I had and a portfolio filled with my drawings I managed to go onto study animation and illustration, much to my parents disbelief (who I found out later had already enquired if there was any vacancies in their work places). Once I started studying on that course, there was a defining moment where everything I was into, past and present, locked into place.
My love for punk music, pop art, skate graphics, graffiti and a 'do it yourself' mentality has undoubtedly defined who I am as a person. The work I produce today some 15 years later is an amalgamation of all my influences over the years. I'm privileged to live and support my family as an artists doing something I truly love, if nothing else I am testament to 'Doing it yourself' and relentless determination.
Dean Stockton.
About the Work:
D*Face is one of the most prolific contemporary urban artists of his generation. Working with a variety of mediums and techniques, he uses a family of dysfunctional characters to satirise and hold to ransom all that falls into their grasp – a welcome jolt of subversion in today’s media-saturated environment.
His aim is to encourage the public not just to 'see', but to look at what surrounds them and their lives, reflecting our increasingly bizarre fascination for with celebrity, fame, consumerism and materialism, re-thinking, reworking and subverting imagery drawn from a refuge of decades of materialistic consumption, imagery appropriated from currency, advertising, comic books, these now iconic motifs, cultural figures and genres are subverted to comment upon our conspicuous society.
Past examples include his collaboration with H.R.H Queen Elizabeth II on a series of bank notes that were put into circulation for an unsuspecting public to notice in their change. Then, to commemorate the instatement of Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican commissioned D*Face to paint a portrait. The piece was shown for the first time at the Outside Institute in May 2005, as well as on MTV Rome, to critical acclaim.
D*Face uses the term - aPOPcalyptic - to define his work, a metaphorical backdrop for the corruptive persuasive consumerist folly that has been force fed into our society, a blend of 'pop art' spliced with fragility of life, his work reflects our popular culture encompassing the American dream and the false ideal of 'good' triumphing over 'evil', no longer relevant in todays society. His imagery delivers the viewer a moral dilema, embrace or reject, laugh or deny.
His work can be seen across a variety of different media applying his playful, tongue-in-cheek imagery with anti establishment values, he was also one of fifty artists commissioned to create a 50th anniversary Penguin book cover and is the only urban artist to date to be featured on the front cover of the fine art publication Art Review. His sell out shows ‘Death & Glory’, 'EyeCons', 'aPOPcalypse now' and most recently 'All your Dreams Belong to Us' in New York last September, firmly founded D*Face’s presence within the global contemporary art market whilst retaining his notoriety, his work regularly sells at Christies, Sotherbys and Bonhams auction houses and yet he still continues to put his work illegally into the public domain, and as such has extensively traveled the world showing and disseminating his artwork.
He recently created the artwork for Christina Aguilera's number one selling album 'Bionic' and in 2005 D*Face set up the gallery 'StolenSpace', which he curates to this day, StolenSpace continues to be Londons foremost contemporary urban art gallery.
Noted Exhibitions:
Stick ‘em up - stickers - Magma, London April 2001
Trick or Treat Motherfucker - Dreambags Jaguar Shoes, London October 2002
Trajan Bar - Solo Show, Stockholm 2003
Native Weapon - Group Show, July 2004
Love - Finders Keepers group show, Montana Gallery, Barcelona July 2004
Hollywood Remix Show - group show, Wooster Collective, New York
Finders Keepers - group show, Hinterconti Gallery, Hamburg August 2004
Santa’s Ghetto - group show, December London 2004
Urban Funke - Finders Keepers group exhibit, Barcelona May 2005
A Few of our Favourite Fiends - group show, Outside Institute, London May 2005
Adfunture London - Introducing D*Dog, Outside Institute, London August 2005
Adfunture Invasion - Introducing D*Dog, Pixie, Taipei September 2005
Pictures on Walls - group show, Allmanna Galleriet Stockholm September 2005
Santa’s Ghetto - group show, December London 2005
7th Day - Group show, Pimp, December London 2005
UK Jack, OK! - A celebration of British style, Colette, Paris February 2006
UK Jack, OK! - A celebration of British style, Dover Street Market, London April 2006
Urban Funke, Group Show, Barcelona May 2006
Death & Glory, Solo show, Stolenspace gallery. London. October 2006
Ice Hotel, Ice Suite creation. November. 2006.
Santas Ghetto. London. December. 2006.
Wooster Collective Spring Street Project. NYC. December. 2006.
Eyecons, Solo Show, O’Contemporary. Brighton. England. April. 2007.
Summer Group Show. StolenSpace Gallery. London. June. 2007.
Groups Show Leonard Street Gallery, London. July. 2007.
Nu Art. Stavinger Museum. Norway. September. 2007
White Noise. Black Rat Press. London. November. 2007.
The Streets of Europe. Jonathan Levine Gallery. New York. December 2007.
Fresh Air Smells Funny. Osnabrück Museum. Germany. January. 2008.
Urban Art Auction. Bonhams. London. February. 2008.
White Noise Paper Works Show. Black Rat Press. London. February. 2008.
D*Arm/RockFace. 24SF/Upper Playground. San Francisco. USA. May. 2008.
Under a Red Sky. Summer Group Show. StolenSpace Gallery. London. June 2008.
Nu Art. Stavinger, Norway. August 2009.
D*Face x Shepard Fairey . Gallerie Magda. Paris. September. 2008.
'aPOPcalypse Now'. London. 2008.
All Your Dreams Are Owned By Us'. Jonathan Levine Gallery. NYC. September 12th, 2009.
I use the term "aPOPcalyptic" to define my work, a blend of 'pop art' spliced with fragility of life.
I re-think, subvert and quiet literally 'deface' imagery drawn from a refuge of materialistic consumption, icons appropriated from currency, advertising, comic books; these icons are given a 'Face lift', using elements of the characters that I've propagated within the public domain for over a decade, these characters are broken down into their individual components and used as hidden connections or threads throughout my work, the discovery of these elements in my gallery work connects to the discovery of my work in the public domain. I want to encourage people to look and not just see at what surrounds them.
Reworking these iconic images I make them relevant to todays society and our increasingly bizarre popular culture. My work questions the conditioning that we've been force fed through the media; the ideal of good triumphing over evil, war equaling brand invasion, Politricks... I alter the advertising imagery that we're bombarded with daily, the billboard liberation's i've created are my most direct way of instigating this; by reclaiming billboards and displaying my subverted imagery and slogans, I deliver an alternative choice to the illusion of hope and dreams that advertising promises us; a subversive intermission from this media saturated environment that surrounds us, I see the work I was put in the public domain as a break to to the advertising bombardment that surrounds us, it was also my escape from this world.
What my work is about is what I’m about. The origins of my work were purely self indulgent; a means of escape from the daily grind. It started when I was a child, bored at school, really interested in drawing and skateboarding and not teh academic subjects I was informed were 'most important'. My mum bought me the books 'Subway Art' and 'Spraycan Art'... She had no idea of the context and illegal aspect to this work and how they would act as my catalyst. The books were eye-candy to a visually starving kid and led me into skateboarding, a few friends at school who skateboarded were also into graffiti, so I would get their hand-me-down copies of 'Thrasher' magazine. It was in 'Thrasher' that I first really saw skate graphics, and I also started to listen to punk and thrash bands they used to feature. That really lit the fuse. The early skateboard graphics and works by Jim Philips, Vernon Johnson and the album artwork by Winston Smith and Raymond Pettibon were a huge influence. Whilst I didn't know who these artists were at the time, the images they created impacted on me heavily and are still a source of inspiration for me today.
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