David Choe is an interesting guy. Between 2005 and 2007, he painted two murals for the Facebook headquarters. Because he was afraid of losing yet more money to a gambling habit, Choe asked Facebook’s Sean Parker and Mark Zuckerberg to pay him with shares rather than cash. By 2012, his Facebook shares were worth $200 million. Though that is enough money to ensure that David Choe never needs to work again, he continues to produce art at a steady clip.
Choe is a wild child, often losing and winning back millions of dollars while gambling. He has some pretty crazy stories to tell about hookers and drugs and partying at Las Vegas casinos. He lives on the edge, somewhat above reality, and this shows in his street art murals which often portray a sense of surrealism. Choe’s graffiti art doesn’t exhibit a consistent personal style. Instead, each street art painting encapsulates whichever style works best for the mood of the piece. In some works, the mood is cheerful and humorous. These pieces portray cartoonish characters with bright colors and a fun sense of movement. Other works have a more serious intent, for example; examining the beauty of a woman’s face. The color scheme, patterns and symbols are used to compliment her facial features and add to her essence of beauty. Many of Choe’s street art murals are filled with a variety of subjects and ideas, offering the viewer a chance to stop and ponder over what they are seeing.
You can see more of David Choe’s art on his website. If you’re interested in some of his wild antics, take a look at this interview on Gawker.com
This street art mural by David Choe in the US shows how he combines surrealist ideas with a cartoon style to create a funny yet bizarre painting. The characters split in two to reveal another character hidden within. The idea for this piece may have been inspired by Matryoshka dolls, also known as Russian Nesting Dolls. Unlike the Matryoshka dolls, the characters split vertically instead of horizontally. [source]
David Choe exaggerates a waomn’s facial features to add to her beauty in this creative street art mural in Mexico. [source]
David Choe meets up with graffiti artist Aryz to create this colorful street art mural of a man and a woman. [source] You can see more street art by Aryz here
Mutant muppets and a spaceman riding a surreal cartoon animal feature in this awesome and bizarre street art painting by David Choe. [source]
David Choe has used UV spray paint on a black surface to create the appearance of glowing underwater creatures in this surrealist street art painting. [source]
David Choe creates contrast in this mural by only using color on the woman’s face. [source]
