- Jul 23, 2005
- 696
- 10
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MARC DEAN VECA
Mark Dean Veca stays busy. The Brooklyn-based artist, who specializes in paintings, drawings, installations, dedicates most of his energy to large-scale murals that eclipse entire walls and even sides of freeways with his surrealist, Pop-culture influenced imagery. Veca is known in the Hip-Hop world for his critically acclaimed work with KAWS, and, most notably, his Nike commission that produced the masterpiece Pulsation, which was exhibited at 255 in New York in 2004. Veca channels the revered legends such as Jackson Pollack and Andy Warhol in his paintings, yet still maintains the immediacy of a graffiti artist, which is why is he able to appeal to such diverse demographics and generations. With shows booked throughout the year in San Diego and New York, Mark Dean Veca continues to produce awe-inspiring, original pieces for his fans. If you are unfamiliar with the man, you need to get busy getting aquatinted.
Who is Marc Dean Veca?
I'm an artist and I live in Los Angeles with my wife and my son and my dog. And that's all I can really think of! [Laughs]
Who are your favorite artists at the moment?
There are many different artist that I like. I mean, there are many artists that are more of a historical past, people like Jackson Pollack, Hans Klein, you know, these abstract Expressionist painters from the 40s and 50s. I also like a lot of Pop artist from the 50s and 60s like Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha. Ed Ruscha is one of my all time favorite artists. He was from Los Angeles and he is sort of the reason that I got excited about doing fine art in the first place when I was going to art school and I first saw his work. And I also like... there are a lot of artists that I know personally that I have worked with or that I'm friends with that I really like alot; people like KAWS, and some other friends from New York like Daniel Davidson and his wife, Trisha Kaibley, who are all great artists. There are so many its hard to even count them all.
You use a lot of Pop Culture characters and imagery in your work. Who are your favorite characters?
I would have to say Pop-Eye. I have used Pop-Eye more than any other character. Back in the early 90s when I first moved to New York I started using Pop-Eye and all those characters from the Pop-Eye comics in my work and I did that for about four years. Later on, I would always go back to Pop-Eye. He was sort of like my mascot. I just finished a piece here in San Diego for my new show using Pop-Eye, a big Pop-Eye face. Other characters... there are alot but Pop-Eye would be my favorite.
How do you feel nostalgia influences you and affects your work?
Nostalgia definitely affects my work but I think what I try to do when I use some kind of pop cultural reference in my work is have something that is personal to me and also be universal so that other people can recognize and relate to or it mean something to them as well as mean something to me. I really try to keep a balance in that way with the imagery that I use. I think a lot of paintings that I have done in the past nostalgia comes into play looking back on my past or finding images that some how strike me in a certain way that I have memories of, whether its my childhood or from high school, you know, things that are really important to me.
What type of idea sets or philosophies from other artists most inspired your work?
I mean I really responded to Pop art more than anything as a young artist and that's what got me excited about... it made me say, "Wow. You can do this and be an artist? You can make that type of work and that's art?" I really didn't know anything about it when I first saw it. That's just always what I seemed to respond to in my life is that kind of pop cultural imagery.
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT http://www.studentsofhiphop.com/artgalleryWWW.STUDENTSOFHIPHOP.COM/ARTGALLERY
MARC DEAN VECA
Mark Dean Veca stays busy. The Brooklyn-based artist, who specializes in paintings, drawings, installations, dedicates most of his energy to large-scale murals that eclipse entire walls and even sides of freeways with his surrealist, Pop-culture influenced imagery. Veca is known in the Hip-Hop world for his critically acclaimed work with KAWS, and, most notably, his Nike commission that produced the masterpiece Pulsation, which was exhibited at 255 in New York in 2004. Veca channels the revered legends such as Jackson Pollack and Andy Warhol in his paintings, yet still maintains the immediacy of a graffiti artist, which is why is he able to appeal to such diverse demographics and generations. With shows booked throughout the year in San Diego and New York, Mark Dean Veca continues to produce awe-inspiring, original pieces for his fans. If you are unfamiliar with the man, you need to get busy getting aquatinted.
Who is Marc Dean Veca?
I'm an artist and I live in Los Angeles with my wife and my son and my dog. And that's all I can really think of! [Laughs]
Who are your favorite artists at the moment?
There are many different artist that I like. I mean, there are many artists that are more of a historical past, people like Jackson Pollack, Hans Klein, you know, these abstract Expressionist painters from the 40s and 50s. I also like a lot of Pop artist from the 50s and 60s like Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha. Ed Ruscha is one of my all time favorite artists. He was from Los Angeles and he is sort of the reason that I got excited about doing fine art in the first place when I was going to art school and I first saw his work. And I also like... there are a lot of artists that I know personally that I have worked with or that I'm friends with that I really like alot; people like KAWS, and some other friends from New York like Daniel Davidson and his wife, Trisha Kaibley, who are all great artists. There are so many its hard to even count them all.
You use a lot of Pop Culture characters and imagery in your work. Who are your favorite characters?
I would have to say Pop-Eye. I have used Pop-Eye more than any other character. Back in the early 90s when I first moved to New York I started using Pop-Eye and all those characters from the Pop-Eye comics in my work and I did that for about four years. Later on, I would always go back to Pop-Eye. He was sort of like my mascot. I just finished a piece here in San Diego for my new show using Pop-Eye, a big Pop-Eye face. Other characters... there are alot but Pop-Eye would be my favorite.
How do you feel nostalgia influences you and affects your work?
Nostalgia definitely affects my work but I think what I try to do when I use some kind of pop cultural reference in my work is have something that is personal to me and also be universal so that other people can recognize and relate to or it mean something to them as well as mean something to me. I really try to keep a balance in that way with the imagery that I use. I think a lot of paintings that I have done in the past nostalgia comes into play looking back on my past or finding images that some how strike me in a certain way that I have memories of, whether its my childhood or from high school, you know, things that are really important to me.
What type of idea sets or philosophies from other artists most inspired your work?
I mean I really responded to Pop art more than anything as a young artist and that's what got me excited about... it made me say, "Wow. You can do this and be an artist? You can make that type of work and that's art?" I really didn't know anything about it when I first saw it. That's just always what I seemed to respond to in my life is that kind of pop cultural imagery.
READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT http://www.studentsofhiphop.com/artgalleryWWW.STUDENTSOFHIPHOP.COM/ARTGALLERY
