As much of the public will contend, graffiti is merely the defacement of public property, although over the past few years more and more of the opposition has been straying over to the dark side. The arts elite have with the aid of the celebrity of artists such as Banksy, Faile and D*Face  tentatively cajoled that same moral majority to at least tolerate if not exactly welcome with open arms, the rise of graffiti and street arts.

All the way through this process of slow and quite honestly painful consolidation between the media, the mainstream and the graffiti arts community, D*Face has continued to act as one of the forerunners of the movement, his works have time and time again shocked and thrilled both devoted fans and the general public and his success continues to climb as does his notoriety.

"D*Face" who revealed his true identity in 2008 as Dean Stockton, was raised in London and has always had a fascination with graffiti from an early age. A he’s got older Dean has moved away from art in the street, with the rise of CCTV and excessive policing across Britain, he’s come to embrace the gallery system, and exhibits more and more of his works indoors. Although he has cited Shepard Fairey‘s "Obey Giant" art campaign as a major influence. Dean and Shepard first hooked up in the very late 90s, Dean was into his work and noticed that Shepard was one of the few artists at the time to have a website, he dropped him a mail and within a relatively short period of time they hooked up on a few collaborations, Dean comes from a sculptural background, and nowadays creates everything from sculpture to installation works alongside his more well known stencil pieces and prints. Although it must be said he didn’t really start creating graffiti until he’d completed Uni, doing design work here and there to make ends meet he’d "utilise" the company’s equipment and make a few stickers and posters each week which he’d paste up on his way home, merely for his own amusement. Things have changed a lot since then, oaks from acorns as they say.

Many of his works are still available for sale at the Stolen Space Gallery (formerly known as the Outside Institute, of which he was an owner and curator). The contemporary art gallery in London that focused on street art, was in 2005 moved and re-branded to become the Stolen Space Gallery.

D*Face’s work is not as well known as Banksy’s, although he does have a few and prominent celebrity fans including Christina Aguilera who have often called for more recognition for this artist. I’m not sure how helpful that could be, perhaps Britney could "Big Up" my work whilst we’re at it? Joking asides, it is true that his pieces do not command the high prices of a Banksy collection. However, I’m sure that in this depressed arts market, financially that is, the playing field will gradually level out somewhat. For those who haven’t come across his work before (where have you been?), here are some of his most well known pieces to feast your eyes on, some new and some classics of their time…

Green Lady by D*Face

One of his most famous pieces, this work is actually based upon Siberian-born, South African based artist Vladimir Tretchikoff‘s Chinese Girl. Tretchikoff was once compared to Andy Warhol by former Red or Dead originator and designer Wayne Hemingway. As with many of D*Face’s works two ongoing additions to his images are wings and skulls, perhaps pertaining to death, or the cartoon-like interpretation of mortality in the modern media? Who knows, life is too short to worry why.

Cli-Che by D*Face

One of Dean’s most recent works, incase you were wondering, the limited edition run of posters for this work ran out ages ago! Still I do love this one, it does point out a greater anomaly, that being the myth of the ever lasting power of the image. An image, however iconic, can be overused, it can lose its vitality, its power, its effect on society, the famous image of the revolutionary Che Guevara has to be at the top of the hit list. The essential skull isn’t accompanied by wings this time, perhaps revolutionaries don’t go to heaven, how about Valhalla?

Pop Tart (Yellow) by D*Face

Following a Pop Art tradition Marilyn Monroe is a mainstay of Post-Modern iconography, a favourite figure of comic tragedy for Andy Warhol D*Face continues the lineage with Pop Tart and a few other pieces in the collection. I’ve personally avoided this character, I’m not sure if it’s misplaced pity or a sense that this is an image that cannot be modified any further, in effect I turned my attention to Warhol himself, however I do personally like the conjunction of Hollywood’s beauty and the beast of graffiti. Furthermore the ephemeral nature of perfected beauty, the idea that any ideal of perfection can carry across from one generation to the next is itself a misnomer.

Facelift by D*Face

I think a healthy disrespect for authority has to be a good thing, Facelift reminds a little of the old Sex Pistols album cover "Never Mind The B*ll*cks" amongst other things, it’s strange how we, a country with some of the weakest human rights for a so-called civilised democratic nation still defend our monarchy no matter what. I can’t imagine the same supine grovelling being lavished on old Charlie. Death of a nation maybe the underlying message, somehow i believe that D*Face doesn’t want to be bogged down with deep and meaningful dialogue. Still, an iconic piece all the same, I particularly appreciate the slight reveal of the obligatory skull in this work.

Check out the rest of D*Face’s collection at his website www.dface.co.uk.

This post is tagged Banksy, d face, d-face-dface, Dean Stockton, graffiti, OBEY, Obey Giant, Shepard Fairey, UK graffiti