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David Choe
Rarely do we see a street artist with the skills and complexity of David Choe. Rapidly establishing himself as one of the greats of the genre, Choe is compellingly repulsive. His complex and pulchritudinous pictures, seductive, appealing and ambitious yet equally mischievous, brutal and insular demonstrate what an angry, intelligent talent can truly achieve. Choe sculpts and paints in oils, acrylics, crayon and mixed media. His credibility as an "artist," albeit one inclined to utilise public spaces every so often, is hardly in doubt. Influences flow through comic book culture to gothic art, impressionism and the surreal. The content of Choe's work is equally complex and in contrast to the slick, succinct, populist messages of some of his contemporaries. The fictional military heroes of GI Joe wield boomboxes above Arabic slogans; hip young metropolitan ladies whisper their cruel conspiracies; seedy delights beckon from behind pretty vistas; grown men scream for ice cream; absurdist animals rope humans into their incomprehensible schemes. On the street, base titillating yet supposedly "tasteful" advertising becomes doctored with intestines and tribal fetishes, echoing the sensual abyss of de Sade. Pictures titles include I Fuck Nerds. Equally, Choe's figurative and collage work displays sensitivity and intricacy rarely matched by Manhattan's girly fashion illustrator set. We should be grateful, not offended, by the insights into Choe's potent imagination and agenda; and the alluring, intricate slag smelted from its process of reconciliation. Hardcover, color.
- GenresArt
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
3 people are currently reading
135 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 14, 2010
man, we all had friends like David Choe, kids who drew the best transformers, & who idolized Jim Lee; perverts who thought in ink, who were obsessed with drawing dicks & high-heeled, spread-eagled women cribbed from porno mags; alchemists of styles, comic strips, graf, porn, fashion; who often drew terrible things shot through with real beauty; who sometimes managed to turn shit into gold.
September 18, 2010
A Naughty, Angry, Hypnotically Talented Artist!
This splashy, classy book is a monograph written by David Choe, the name of the book being DAVID CHOE. It is an artwork in and of itself in that the artist wrote all the content, designed the layout of the book, edited the mixture and then added an Introduction that amounts to bits and pieces pasted from responses to his art from his blog - not a bad idea -, but 99% of these comments are extremely negative, suggesting that Choe is a fool, a racist, a plagiarist, and a artist with no talent! It is a very funny way to open a book that is like no other book you will encounter. This reader finds it fascinating, hilarious, thoughtful, daring, and in all a magnificent read and view that will find its way onto the lap repeatedly.
For background about the artist David Choe, of Korean heritage, we must turn to the internet info: 'David Choe was born 1976 in Los Angeles. Today he is currently homeless wandering the earth. Making good art and bad music. His favorite places are Vietnam, Israel, NYC, and the Bay Area. Even though he dropped out of art school, he still gets asked to speak at universities all the time. He works in all mediums, he can paint anything and everything, as well as on anything and everything. He has won lots of awards and his work can be found in every facet of society, from comics, murals, toys, prints, movies, magazines, books, T shirts, commercials, posters, shoes, fine art, live demos, etc. He says he wants to retire early and illustrate the entire Bible and paint the entire Great Wall of China. But who knows anything with this guy'. It is fairly obvious who the author of this CV is!
What is certain, after reading and spending time with this book, saturated with color, pornography, and examples of everything he has done, is that he is a daring and wholly unique young talent. Some have suggested a comparison with Jean-Michel Basquiat, and there indeed are similarities in portions of Choe's work to justify that, but there are equal doses of Egon Schiele and the major graffiti artists of the day. What makes David Choe so fascinating is his spectrum of talent. He is not one easily labeled - except perhaps that he is a renegade shaking up a society he finds too complacent, too uninvolved. There are pages of watercolors from exhibitions in British galleries that are at once masterfully painted with minimal line and graphically sexual. But then there are pages of toys he has created, complex paintings, murals on the walls of rooms and of streets that can only be called dazzling. This is a book that will keep offering visual and visceral pleasures every time it is placed on the desk or the lap or against knees in the bed. If those who called Gauguin et al 'The Fauves' could compare David Choe's talent, that word would have to transfer to this artist. An added page slipped inside the back cover of this book (so as not to destroy the effect of the drool-stained pillowcase photograph that serves as the art at the beginning and end of this monograph) there is a included a pink box stating 'Ten years in the making, this career-spanning collection of paintings, sketches, murals, graffiti, snapshots, toys, collages, stories, and photographs was created, designed, and written by David himself.' Adjacent to this statement is scratched 'David Choe's kinetic and frenetic work transcends the streets and galleries as he mixes oil paints, watercolors, love, spray paint, life, collage, unrealistic expectations, blood, body parts, and tear jerking into something to have and to hold. he is a hopeless romantic and homeless millionaire.'
Pasted around the page are comments, like 'His personality is probably his biggest flaw in his art.', 'david choe is horrible at everything. he's horrible at just existing.', 'In a phrase, Choe is that artist that every University MFA wannabe wishes they could be: hard-working, bursting with creativity, successful, and even tormented. The downside to all this talent is that Choe is as extremely unlikeable as he is charming. He's the Peter Pan who failed to grow out of his pubescent tantrums, always flailing against authority. Clifford Hilo'. That about sums up the experience of getting to know the prolific art of this inordinately creative young artist. He will be noticed!
Grady Harp
This splashy, classy book is a monograph written by David Choe, the name of the book being DAVID CHOE. It is an artwork in and of itself in that the artist wrote all the content, designed the layout of the book, edited the mixture and then added an Introduction that amounts to bits and pieces pasted from responses to his art from his blog - not a bad idea -, but 99% of these comments are extremely negative, suggesting that Choe is a fool, a racist, a plagiarist, and a artist with no talent! It is a very funny way to open a book that is like no other book you will encounter. This reader finds it fascinating, hilarious, thoughtful, daring, and in all a magnificent read and view that will find its way onto the lap repeatedly.
For background about the artist David Choe, of Korean heritage, we must turn to the internet info: 'David Choe was born 1976 in Los Angeles. Today he is currently homeless wandering the earth. Making good art and bad music. His favorite places are Vietnam, Israel, NYC, and the Bay Area. Even though he dropped out of art school, he still gets asked to speak at universities all the time. He works in all mediums, he can paint anything and everything, as well as on anything and everything. He has won lots of awards and his work can be found in every facet of society, from comics, murals, toys, prints, movies, magazines, books, T shirts, commercials, posters, shoes, fine art, live demos, etc. He says he wants to retire early and illustrate the entire Bible and paint the entire Great Wall of China. But who knows anything with this guy'. It is fairly obvious who the author of this CV is!
What is certain, after reading and spending time with this book, saturated with color, pornography, and examples of everything he has done, is that he is a daring and wholly unique young talent. Some have suggested a comparison with Jean-Michel Basquiat, and there indeed are similarities in portions of Choe's work to justify that, but there are equal doses of Egon Schiele and the major graffiti artists of the day. What makes David Choe so fascinating is his spectrum of talent. He is not one easily labeled - except perhaps that he is a renegade shaking up a society he finds too complacent, too uninvolved. There are pages of watercolors from exhibitions in British galleries that are at once masterfully painted with minimal line and graphically sexual. But then there are pages of toys he has created, complex paintings, murals on the walls of rooms and of streets that can only be called dazzling. This is a book that will keep offering visual and visceral pleasures every time it is placed on the desk or the lap or against knees in the bed. If those who called Gauguin et al 'The Fauves' could compare David Choe's talent, that word would have to transfer to this artist. An added page slipped inside the back cover of this book (so as not to destroy the effect of the drool-stained pillowcase photograph that serves as the art at the beginning and end of this monograph) there is a included a pink box stating 'Ten years in the making, this career-spanning collection of paintings, sketches, murals, graffiti, snapshots, toys, collages, stories, and photographs was created, designed, and written by David himself.' Adjacent to this statement is scratched 'David Choe's kinetic and frenetic work transcends the streets and galleries as he mixes oil paints, watercolors, love, spray paint, life, collage, unrealistic expectations, blood, body parts, and tear jerking into something to have and to hold. he is a hopeless romantic and homeless millionaire.'
Pasted around the page are comments, like 'His personality is probably his biggest flaw in his art.', 'david choe is horrible at everything. he's horrible at just existing.', 'In a phrase, Choe is that artist that every University MFA wannabe wishes they could be: hard-working, bursting with creativity, successful, and even tormented. The downside to all this talent is that Choe is as extremely unlikeable as he is charming. He's the Peter Pan who failed to grow out of his pubescent tantrums, always flailing against authority. Clifford Hilo'. That about sums up the experience of getting to know the prolific art of this inordinately creative young artist. He will be noticed!
Grady Harp
August 24, 2019
The text is unsettling. I especially liked the superhero art.
October 14, 2020
Rods from😂 the couple forst
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews