Thursday 28 April 2011

D*Face - The Cosmic Engineers

"D*Face" aka. Dean Stockton is a London based street artist, and the designer of the tattoo on my left shoulder. He grew up in London and had a childhood interest in graffiti, which he credits to Henry Chalfant's coverage of New York subway graffiti in Spraycan Art and Subway Art. Later Thrasher magazine's coverage of skateboard deck graphics led to his interest in stickers and the DIY mentality associated with skate and punk fanzines. He attended an illustration and design course and worked as a freelance illustrator/designer whilst honing his street work. He held his first major London solo exhibition, Death & Glory, at the Stolenspace gallery, which sold out in October 2006. D*Face was the owner and curator for the Outside Institute, a contemporary art gallery in London that focused on street art. In 2005 the Outside Institute moved and re branded to become the Stolenspace Gallery. In 2010, he collaborated with Christina Aguilera, on her album cover of Bionic. He has also continues to practice occasional street art, but is also making a transition to the world of fine art.

Much of his work takes well known images from pop art or other sources and defaces them. The Cosmic Engineers is a small original -  one of the first of a series based on cut up paperback books, reassembled and defaced by hand. This one featured in a show at Stolen Space Gallery in 2010.