David Yow, frontman for The Jesus Lizard and Scratch Acid, showcases his artwork in his first overseas exhibit, Das Geheime Tagebuch (The Secret Diary), at Berlin’s Neurotitan Gallery this Friday, Apr. 15 through May 7.
Yow, who began his art career in his pre-punk college years, had his first proper exhibit at Los Angeles’ DIY Gallery in 2010. Yow described the show as a “catalyst for a torrent of intriguing mixed media pieces that included photography, hair, insects, blood, toenails… and even paint.” Within months, Shepard Fairey’s gallery, Subliminal Projects, invited Yow to participate in their winter show, Wreck The Walls. Yow’s first New York group exhibit came this March when he was asked to display his work at The Fuse Gallery.
The son of a fighter pilot, David Yow spent his prepubescent years moving from continent to continent with his family, eventually landing stateside in Austin, TX. After dragging ass through high school, but excelling in art classes, he attended Southwest Texas State University. Aiming at a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, Yow got heavily into painting and drawing, mostly on paper or Bristol board. He was particularly influenced by his mentor, friend, and teacher, Mark Todd, as well as people like Hockney and Rauschenberg. Almost three years into his higher education, punk rock tore young David away, and he forsook visual art, with the exception of making disgusting fliers for punk shows. Starting in 1982, Yow sang for the seminal post-punk band, Scratch Acid, and later earned notoriety as “unhinged” lyricist and front man for The Jesus Lizard… all the while designing album covers and products related to his bands. In the ‘90s, Photoshop became another passion of Yow’s, and he launched a successful career as a photo-retoucher for print advertising and key art. During the last few years, he has increasingly put brush to canvas and poked around with other visual media. Now, he is creating mixed media paintings as large as 6’x8’, reminiscent of the work did in school. He has also been digitally combining his line drawings with photographic textures to produce imagery that lies somewhere between photo-realism and cartoon.
Location
Neurotitan Gallery
Haus Schwarzenberg
Rosenthalerstraße 39
10178 Berlin
Phone: +49.(0)30.308 725 76
www.neurotitan.de
More info at www.davidyow.net
