Dan Baldwin is a British artist who’s seriously making a name for himself in the international urban arts scene, asides the quality of his mixed-media works and subjects covered, apart from a faithful if not fanatic following, Dan must be one of the most subtle self-promoters this side of the Atlantic.
He has had work featured in a plethora of publications across the board, including Flair (Italy); Aesthetica, Vogue, Elle Magazine, Time Out (NYC), Modern Painters, The Observer Style Magazine, Dazed & Confused, I.D Magazine, Pure, London Evening Standard, Plaza and Art Of England. He was even selected as one of five artists on BBC2’s The Apprentice, and the host and prominent businessman Alan Sugar is quoted as saying “One of Britain’s best up and coming artists”. Although I’m not sure if Sugar knows a single jot about art it definitely doesn’t do any harm to get such recommendations from those in the limelight.
Baldwin graduated in 1995 at Eastbourne College of Art where he was voted best student 1992, originally born in Manchester he’s now permanently based in Brighton, his work has been shown in prestigious spaces across the globe. Galleries including Forster Gallery, Basel Art Fair (Switzerland), The ICA, Catto Contemporary, Ink-D Gallery, Lazinc Gallery, The New York Art Fair, London Art Fair, Galerie Suty (Paris), 43 Molton St , Opus (Newcastle), Tom Tom, Zoo Art Fair (Royal Academy), Pulse (Miami), Scope (New York ) and even the windows of Selfridges Department Store in London. Baldwin has exhibited alongside big name artists such as Banksy, Antony Micallef, Jamie Hewlett, Peter Blake, and Nick Walker.
His pet topics include life and death, politics, vanitas, symbolism, beauty, innocence, decay, and his iconography includes everything from Iraq and U.S. currency, vintage crucifixes, bullets, stag horns, guns and vintage war memorabilia and even razor blades. He works in both screen print and spray paint, and household paint, his creative process is both eclectic and organic, layering image upon image to create a controlled cocophony of chaotic ideology in hue, colour and texture. He has relatively recently branched out into ceramics which are painted and printed with the same highly recognisable Baldwin imagery.
His work is very current, summing up much about the lives we lead today, led from one emotional direction to another by those in power, fearing that which the advertising industry plays upon so well, our mortality, our surface appearance and our inevitable individual demise. There is a kinship in Baldwin’s work comparable with the ‘Beat Culture’, in mediums such as experimental jazz and film. However using an array of powerful and relevant mass produced photography and art as his inspiration he has pushed the boundaries of mere experimentation and allowed the public to view a near symphonic collective of visual thought and apparatus of fear, hope, pain, want, love and death.
His works are currently available as either limited edition prints or original works at the following sites:-
Art Republic
Opus Art
Ink-D
Baldwin-Prints
Prescription Art
Ebay
Tags: Banksy, contemporary art, Dan Baldwin, editions, Micallef, multiples, prints
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