The new David Choe exhibit opens tomorrow over in Beverly Hills.
Choe is a Korean American art school dropout known for a very aggressive, sort of crude artistic style.
To be completely honest with you - I don't even like a lot of the guy's work. Choe is friends with James Jean, whose stuff I tend to prefer, and personally I like Evan Hecox more than both of them combined.
But the one thing that you cannot take away from Choe is that he undeniably has more charisma - much more of a distinct persona than any of his contemporaries.
All 3 of these photos are stolen from Choe's blog
For example, you see the blacked out Benz in this photo - the story goes that Choe was gambling in Vegas a few months ago and won big. So, he gets on Craigslist and finds this flat black painted Mercedes CLS. Then he brings a trash bag full of cash to the seller's home, dumps the money on the table and proceeds to drive the car back to LA.
And that's just the beginning. Choe's blog documents all of the random neurotic chaos that is his life - all of which seems to simply add to his enigmatic reputation for excess and mayhem.
Early on, the art establishment was slow to accept him and he says that he basically used the frustration from those initial rejections to fuel his now burgeoning career. He's now unbelievably successful and world famous - one of his portraits of Obama is currently hanging in the White House. And yet publicly he still maintains the subversive demeanor of a young, broke, angry and obscure struggling artist.
Anyway, it sort of just makes you think about how important people's backstories and public personas can be to their overall success. And this is his first solo show in LA in six years, so I'm looking forward to checking it out.
P.S. If you have more time than usual to waste today, check out this old blog entry of his entitled Gambling Man, in which he discusses, in detail, his blackjack philosophy and superstitions.
