featured artists: David Schmidt

The life of stencil artists is one of contradiction. The act of spray-painting is immediate and chaotic; yet the stencil is created painstakingly and with absolute precision. The wild art of the can is tamed, controlled and brought to solid form by the template, surgically hand-carved. The details and care that goes into creating the stencil is artisanal, committed and focused. A stencil artist seeks not necessarily to create but to recreate. To relocate. From the impermanent recesses of the creative mind, to the authority and permanence of the stencil.

Whilst studying Fine Art at university, David was fascinated by miniature design, Japanese animation and propaganda posters. It was while living in East London during the early 2000s that he became intoxicated by a graffiti movement that was coming of age. This city was Banksy’s Hollywood, his reputation blew up in London; and so too did the grafters and the artists of the shadows as they stepped into the light of the gallery. But this was not just a time for the commercialization of graffiti. It was the playground of the one-off creative & the political activist; the walls were speaking, screaming. DS Art was the love-child of this movement.

David’s work takes the art of stencil-work to levels of exceptional detail. Multiple layers create imagery beyond the monochromatic designs that adorn the walls of our streets; instead we are presented with depth, colour and detail that is complex, tactile and mentally engaging. Themes of violence and fragility are underscored by the playful and outright stupid – all dressed in the robes of rich colour and form.

Education:

2005 - 07 University of Bristol

Selected Exhibitions:

Solo shows:

2010 – ‘DSArt.01’, Cielo Gallery, New Burlington Street, London

2007 - Mbargo, Coventry

2007 - Mbargo, Bristol

Group shows:

2010 – (Forthcoming) With Orion Contemporary, ArtHelsinki, Finland

2010 - With Orion Contemporary, AAF, Brussels, Belgium

2009 - With Zebra Gallery, AAF, Amsterdam, Holland

2009 - With Clase Contemporary, AAF, Battersea, London