D*FaceāsĀ āPainting Over the Cracks.ā
On view beginning August 6th, 2022 at Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles, California is artist D*Faceās highly anticipated solo exhibition,Ā āPainting Over the Cracks.ā
Instantly recognized as one of the UKās most prolific Urban Contemporary artists, D*Face (Dean Stockton) has occupied the forefront of his practice since his first sell out show in 2005. Born and raised in London, his childhood interests of graffiti, California skate culture, and punk aesthetic were well nurtured from an early age. Having come across the likes of Jim Phillips and Vernon Courtlandt Johnson amidst the pages of Thrasher Magazine, he was initially inspired to follow a path of graphic design and illustration, before eventually taking a more freelance approach to his art. After learning to screen print his own stickers, he took the public domain of the street as his canvas, blending art, design, and graffiti in a manner that pre-dated the emergence of street art as it is known today. It was in this newly found outlet that D*Face quickly gained attention from others, mainly for the clean, vivid nature of his designs that quickly spread across the city. Even today, D*Face continues to approach his work with the same anarchic energy that drove his career from the outset. His murals can be found across the globe and his subversive-pop style and iconic D*Dog logo have become an inseparable part British Urban art and itās ever-expanding medium.
Often describing his work as āaPOPcalyptic,ā D*Face seeks to pick up where the masters of 1980ās American Pop left oļ¬ ā to establish a very real, albeit tongue in cheek criticism of our consumer dominated world. By subverting the images and icons of the everyday, the artist encourages the eye of the beholder not just to āseeā but to carefully consider that which they may otherwise take for granted. By re-appropriating media from decades of materialistic over-consumption--advertising, comic books, and on-screen romance--and reshaping it with cleaner lines and the vibrant hues of his pallet, D*Faceās work acts as a necessary wake up call to overly conspicuous society of the 21st century.
Regarding his new works, D*Face shares, āYes, yes, Iām aware the actual expression is to āpaper over the cracksā but for obvious reasons, painting felt more appropriate to me and to this show ā with nearly one hundred murals under my belt, Iāve spent my fair share of time painting over real cracks in real walls. If you havenāt heard the expression before, it essentially refers to the act of ignoring or hiding an issue in both the literal and metaphorical sense ā itās putting on a brave face and pretending that āthe issueā doesnāt really exist.ā Adding, āAfter living through an unprecedented, historical moment in time that saw us globally locked down as a result of the pandemic, I think weāve witnessed our fair share of ācracksā appearing across society and culture alike, some fresh, some older, and some deeper than before. In many of these cases it felt like the approach was to apply a big dollop of metaphorical paint to cover them up, only for the cracks to reappear slightly worse further down the line. This show and body of work is a collection of my own personal observations and feelings from the last couple of years. My intention is not a love letter to what we have lost and nor is it a celebration of the change that was catalysed by the pandemic, because, letās face it, thereās been good and bad in both. Rather, itās a visual acknowledgement of the altered society in which we now find ourselves and which we must strive to make better.ā
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