David Choe

Last updated

David Choe
David Choe, 2010.jpg
David Choe in 2010
Born (1976-04-21) April 21, 1976 (age 47)[ citation needed ]
Nationality American
Education California College of the Arts
Known for Painter, murals, graphic novels
Awards Xeric Grant
Website www.davidchoe.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

David Choe (born April 21, 1976)[ citation needed ] is an American artist, musician, actor, and former journalist and podcast host from Los Angeles. Choe's work appears in a wide variety of urban culture and entertainment contexts. He has illustrated and written for magazines including Hustler , Ray Gun and Vice . He has an ongoing relationship with the Asian pop culture website, store, and former magazine Giant Robot . [1]

Contents

His figurative paintings, which explore themes of desire, degradation, and exaltation, are characterized by a raw, frenetic method that he has termed "dirty style." [2]

Early life and education

Choe was born in Los Angeles, California. His parents are Korean immigrants and born-again Christians. He spent his childhood in Koreatown, Los Angeles. [3] He has been spray-painting on the streets since he was in his teens. He briefly attended the California College of the Arts. [4]

Career

Cover of Slow Jams by David Choe, after Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge Choe-slow-jams.jpeg
Cover of Slow Jams by David Choe, after Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's At the Moulin Rouge

In 1996, Choe self-published a graphic novel titled Slow Jams. He claims to have made only 200 copies and given them away at Comic-Con [5] in 1998, hoping to interest a publisher. In 1999, he submitted Slow Jams for the Xeric Grant and was awarded $5,000 to self-publish a second, expanded edition of 1,000 which came out in 1999 with a cover price of $4. [6]

In 2005, internet entrepreneur Sean Parker, a longtime fan, [7] asked him to paint graphic sexual murals in the interior of Facebook's first Silicon Valley office, [8] and in 2007, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg commissioned him to paint somewhat tamer murals for their next office. [9] Although he thought the Facebook business model was "ridiculous and pointless," [10] Choe chose to receive company stock in lieu of cash payment for the original Facebook murals. His shares were valued at approximately $200 million on the eve of Facebook's 2012 IPO. [10]

After holding several solo shows in San Jose and San Francisco, he was offered a solo exhibit at the Santa Rosa Museum of Contemporary Art in 2005. [11] He held his first New York solo exhibit, "Gardeners of Eden," in 2007 at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Chelsea, [12] and in 2008, he had his first UK solo exhibition, "Murderous Heart," in both the London and Newcastle locations of Lazarides Gallery, simultaneously. [13]

In 2008, with Harry Kim, he made an autobiographical documentary, Dirty Hands: The Art and Crimes of David Choe . [14]

Vice

After being approached for his artwork by Gavin McInnes and Shane Smith, Choe was recruited to write and do artwork for Vice magazine.

For an online series called Thumbs Up! with Vice, [15] which has three seasons, Choe and Harry Kim were filmed hitchhiking and freight hopping from Los Angeles to Miami and Tijuana to Alaska, and then hitching across China from Beijing to Shenzhen and the gambling mecca of Macau. [16] A fourth season, in which Choe and Kim travel from San Francisco to New York, was 'released' on Snapchat and Instagram. [17]

2013–present

In 2013, Choe began hosting an online lifestyle and entertainment podcast with adult film star Asa Akira entitled DVDASA.

He has also become recognized for his watercolors, which exhibited in his solo show at the Museo Universario del Chopo, Mexico City in 2013. [18] [19]

After receiving extensive therapy and treatment, he reemerged in 2017 with a new body of work and an exhibition in Los Angeles that presented heavy themes of trauma, self-reflection and hope for recovery. [20]

In 2023, Choe starred as Isaac Cho in the Netflix drama-comedy miniseries Beef , alongside Ali Wong and Steven Yeun. He also painted the title cards for episodes 2 through 10 of the show. [21]

Charitable works

Since 2008, Choe has dedicated many of his works to charity and has collaborated with foundations to support their local causes, including fundraising for Haiti with Yle Haiti, a foundation founded by Wyclef Jean; [22] painting with the children of The LIDÈ Haiti Foundation; and painting with children of South Central LA at APCH. [23]

Controversies

Rape comments on his podcast

Choe commented in March 2014 on his DVDASA podcast that he had engaged in "rapey behavior" with a masseuse. He defended his comment by explaining that the podcast itself is essentially a work of fiction. [24] After being commissioned to paint the Bowery Mural Wall in 2017, he was met with protest from other artists, including street artist Swoon, who issued a statement against his inclusion in the mural project. Another artist, Jasmine Wahi, co-organized a performance in front of the mural and stated "Our aim is to provoke widespread rejection of the continued normalization of rape culture by bringing visibility to the topic." Additionally, the mural was quickly defaced by graffiti artists. Choe responded by again publicly denying any history of sexual assault or rape, and by apologizing for his original podcast comments. [25] [26] [27] [28] His comments on the podcast resurfaced in April 2023 after the success of the Netflix drama-comedy miniseries Beef. [29] [30]

In the early 2000s, Choe was reportedly arrested in Japan, where he was taking part in an art show, after an altercation with a police officer. Various sources cite the year as 2003 or 2005 and state that Choe spent two or three months in prison. [31] [32] [33] [34]

Bibliography

Filmography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keith Haring</span> American artist and social activist (1958–1990)

Keith Allen Haring was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his work includes sexual allusions that turned into social activism by using the images to advocate for safe sex and AIDS awareness. In addition to solo gallery exhibitions, he participated in renowned national and international group shows such as documenta in Kassel, the Whitney Biennial in New York, the São Paulo Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. The Whitney Museum held a retrospective of his art in 1997.

Thierry Noir is a French artist and muralist based in Berlin. He is considered the first artist to paint the Berlin Wall in the 1980s. He created brightly-colored paintings across large spans of the Berlin Wall and some of these original paintings can still be seen on surviving segments of the Wall in art collections and on the East Side Gallery. Noir's work and style are now considered iconic, and Noir is also regarded as one of the forerunners of the street art movement as a whole. He continues to create murals worldwide in cities including London, Los Angeles, and Sydney.

Mark Machado, better known as Mr. Cartoon or more commonly just Cartoon or Toon, is an American tattoo artist and graffiti artist based in Los Angeles, California. Growing up in the Harbor area of Los Angeles County, young Cartoon began doing illustrations and graffiti then going on to airbrushing clothing and lowrider custom cars. Machado then moved on to working in the music industry doing album covers, tour merchandise, and later tattooing recording artists and other celebrities.

George Lee Quiñones is a Puerto Rican artist and actor. Quiñones rose to prominence by creating massive New York City subway car graffiti that carried his moniker "LEE". His style is rooted in popular culture and often with political messages.

Jeff Soto is an American contemporary artist. His distinct color palette, subject matter and technique have been said to bridge the gap between Pop Surrealism and Street Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cope2</span>

Fernando Carlo is an artist from the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">OSGEMEOS</span>

OSGEMEOS are identical twin street artists Otavio Pandolfo and Gustavo Pandolfo. They started painting graffiti in 1987 and their work appears on streets and in galleries across the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Powers (artist)</span>

Stephen J. Powers is an American contemporary artist and muralist. He is also known by the name ESPO, and Steve Powers. He lives in New York City.

Galo Canote is an artist mainly known for his graffiti art. As a graffiti artist, he was born in Los Angeles. He also lived in Guadalajara in the mid 1980s.

RISK, also known as RISKY, is a Los Angeles–based graffiti writer and contemporary artist often credited as a founder of the West Coast graffiti scene. In the 1980s, he was one of the first graffiti writers in Southern California to paint freight trains, and he pioneered writing on "heavens", or freeway overpasses. He took his graffiti into the gallery with the launch of the Third Rail series of art shows, and later created a line of graffiti-inspired clothing. In 2017, RISK was knighted by the Medici Family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blu (artist)</span>

Blu is the pseudonym of an Italian artist who conceals his real identity. He was born in Senigallia. He lives in Bologna and has been active in street art since 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse Edwards (artist)</span> American artist

Jesse Edwards is an American artist. Known primarily for his figurative and still life oil paintings, using techniques from the European Old Masters, that often provide satirical cultural commentary. His practice also includes painted ceramic sculptures. Edwards studied oil painting at the Gage Academy of Art (2002), and has been exhibiting publicly since. He has been into graffiti twice as long as oil painting or ceramics. After moving from Seattle to New York Edwards acquired representation by Vito Schnabel Edwards work was later chosen by the curators Theo Niarchos and David Rimanelli to be included in group exhibitions alongside works by Harmony Korine, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, Julian Schnabel, Dan Colen, Dash Snow, and Pablo Picasso.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ROA (artist)</span>

ROA is a graffiti and street artist from Ghent, Belgium. He has created works on the streets of cities across Europe, the United States, Australia, Asia, New Zealand and Africa. ROA generally paints wild or urban animals and birds that are native to the area being painted. ROA usually uses a minimal color palette, such as black and white, but also creates works using vibrant colours depicting the flesh or internal systems within the animals and birds.

"ROA treats each surface he paints like a space to investigate, play with, and fit his creatures into. The technical perfection of his painting belies an underlying resourcefulness with simple tools,” “The animals are matched to their location, with rats in New York City and elephants in Bangkok. There are dark and funny messages, the beauty of both life and death, universal metaphors, inside jokes, and occasional violence, but always in ways that honor the animals and the spaces where they are painted."

Alex Brewer, also known as HENSE, is an American contemporary artist, best known for his dynamic, vivid and colorful abstract paintings and monumental wall pieces. He has been active since the 1990s. In 2002 he began accepting commissions for artwork and over the course of the last decade has established a solid reputation as a commissioned artist, having appeared in several solo and group shows.

RETNA is a contemporary artist, primarily recognized for graffiti art. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and started his career in the early 1990s. He developed a distinctive constructed script which is derived from Blackletter, Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Arabic, and Hebrew calligraphy, as well as more traditional types of street-based graffiti. In addition to exhibiting at institutions and galleries in Los Angeles, Miami, London, New York and Hong Kong, Retna has done advertising work for brands such as VistaJet, Louis Vuitton, and Nike. His artwork adorns the cover of Justin Bieber's Purpose album that debuted in 2015. Retna has many high profile patrons, including fast food magnate Sam Nazarian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Prigoff</span> American photographer, author, and lecturer (1927–2021)

James Prigoff was an American photographer, author, and lecturer focusing on public murals, graffiti, and spraycan art. He has traveled extensively throughout the world documenting these art forms, and his personal archive of 100,000 slides may well be the most comprehensive of any individual mural and graffiti documentarian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikael Brandrup</span>

Mikael Brandrup, also known as Mikael B or "KETS", is a Danish visual artist, graphic designer, and entrepreneur who lives in Los Angeles. Mikael B has exhibited at galleries in Europe and the United States such as Taglialatella Galleries, Gregorio Escalante Gallery, Corey Helford Gallery, CASS Contemporary, WYN317 and Gabba Gallery. He works in both the fine art world and in the urban contemporary genres.

Pose is a contemporary American artist living and working in Chicago, Illinois.

Logan Hicks (1971) is an American contemporary artist born in 1971 and graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

References

  1. "Artists". GiantRobotStore. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  2. Amanda Erlanson, Heroes & Villains , Zero+ Publishing, 2011. ISBN   0-9822461-6-1
  3. Jaime Wright, "Choe Jams: The Purity of David Choe Archived 2020-11-08 at the Wayback Machine ," Comfusion Magazine, Winter 2002.
  4. Amanda Erlanson, "David Choe," Heroes & Villains , Zero+ Publishing, 2011. ISBN   0-9822461-6-1
  5. Leatham, Thomas (2022-08-05). "David Choe, the graffiti artist that got rich from Facebook". Far Out . Retrieved 2023-04-15.
  6. "Xeric Foundation Comic Book Self-Publishing Grants for 1999". www.xericfoundation.org. Archived from the original on 2018-11-15. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  7. Daniel Chen, "David Choe Archived 2017-06-22 at the Wayback Machine ," The Citrus Report, 6/7/09.
  8. Nick Denton, "Office decorator encouraged to draw 'cocks' Archived January 30, 2023, at the Wayback Machine ," Gawker, 12/13/06.
  9. Nick Denton, "Facebook cleans up the graffiti Archived August 31, 2012, at the Wayback Machine ," Gawker, 5/2/07.
  10. 1 2 Nick Bilton, "For Founders to Decorators, Facebook Riches," The New York Times, 1/1/12.
  11. "Artnet: David Choe," Artnet database.
  12. "David ChoeGardeners of Eden". Jonathan Levine Projects. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  13. Terence Teh, "David Choe in the U.K.," Dazed Digital, 3/08.
  14. David Choe, David Choe , Chronicle Books, 2010. ISBN   0-8118-6953-9.
  15. "Thumbs Up!". Vice. Retrieved 2019-08-13.
  16. David Choe, "The David Choe Special Issue," Juxtapoz, 5/10.The David Choe Special Issue at the Wayback Machine (archived March 16, 2012)
  17. Bernardo Loyola, "David Choe's Mexico City Gallery Show Features Naked Girls and Visions of Ayahuasca," VICE, 8/13.
  18. "David Choe "SNOWMAN MONKEY BBQ" @ Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City". www.juxtapoz.com.
  19. "David Choe on His Mexico City Show and Life as a Global Street Artist - BLOUIN ARTINFO". www.blouinartinfo.com. Archived from the original on 2018-07-05. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
  20. Calderón, Trina (1 August 2017). "David Choe's Secretive Koreatown Art Show Is Making People Feel a Lot of Things". L.A. Weekly.
  21. Carpou, Madeline (2023-04-11). "What's Up With the Title Art in 'Beef'?". The Mary Sue. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  22. "Haitian Girl - David Choe". 28 January 2010.
  23. Recinos, Eva (22 February 2013). "David Choe, Famed Artist of Facebook Headquarters, Helps Kids Paint a Mural in South L.A." L.A. Weekly.
  24. Ali Vingiano and Tasneem Nashrulla, "Celebrity Graffiti Artist David Choe Doesn't Think He Actually Raped Anyone," "BuzzFeed", 04/18/2014
  25. "David Choe's Bowery Mural Targeted in Protest Against Rape Culture". artnet News. 2017-06-16. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
  26. "Artist David Choe Apologizes for Statements About Rape and Says Story Was Fictional". Brooklyn Street Art. 2017-06-17. Retrieved 2023-04-14.
  27. "How the New Bowery Wall Commission Puts Rape Culture on Display". Hyperallergic. 2017-06-08. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
  28. "David Choe's Controversial Bowery Mural Tagged with Giant Letters [UPDATED]". Hyperallergic. 2017-06-12. Retrieved 2019-11-17.
  29. "'Beef' star David Choe slammed after podcast detailing 'rapey behavior' resurfaces". NBC News. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  30. Bruce-Smith, Alex. "What To Know About The Alleged Rape Controversy Around 'Beef' Star David Choe". ELLE. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  31. "David Choe". RVCA Japan. Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  32. Silvoy, Sandra (Feb 15, 2010). "David Choe: From Japanese Prison to the White House". KQED. Archived from the original on 2020-08-08. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  33. Judkis, Maura (Feb 2, 2012). "Facebook IPO: 5 things you should know about David Choe, insta-millionaire artist". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
  34. Page, Samantha (2010-04-22). "Artist's trip from jail to Beverly Hills show". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2021-04-21.
  35. "50 Shades of Sasha Grey: How She Got Into Porn & More," VICE, 4/25/11.