Graffiti By David Choe

Life
David Choe was raised in the racially diverse Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, the child of Korean immigrant parents who were born-again Christians. Like many boys, his chief interests were Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Robotech and superheroes, which he drew obsessively from an early age. In his early teens, in response to having his bicycle stolen repeatedly, he began to retaliate by stealing bikes and shoplifting whenever the opportunity arose. In 1990, inspired by L.A. graffiti pioneers Mear One and Hex, he started venting his teenage anger by scrawling graffiti on bus benches, billboards and back alleys across the city. With his first can of Krylon flat black, he cited the Bible verse John 11:35, which reads "Jesus wept." Rather than writing his name over and over, he painted faces and figures, cartoony whales, and punchy philosophical messages. Though he lived in Koreatown, he went to high school in the privileged enclave of Beverly Hills, and by the time the 1992 Los Angeles riots broke out when he was 16, he had become acutely aware of the class and racial tensions that divided the city into mutually hostile territories. A proud participant in the violence and mayhem that ensued, he claims that he and his brother were the only Koreans who looted. After the six-day riot had subsided, he discovered that his parents' real estate business in Koreatown had burned to the ground, which made the next few years difficult for his family.
Immediately after graduating from high school, Choe departed on the first of many adventures, and spent the next two years freight-hopping, hitchhiking, hustling and stealing his way around the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. When he returned to Los Angeles at the age of 21, he decided he needed formal training if he wanted to be a "real" artist, and enrolled in the only art school that accepted him, the California College of Arts & Crafts in Oakland. There he came under the influence of professor Barron Storey's raw, intimate, painterly style. Choe, who calls Storey "the current king of the dirty school," studied under the veteran illustrator for two years and then dropped out. All the while, he was stealing art supplies, books and food to get by, in addition to his ongoing nocturnal graffiti campaign, which eventually landed him in jail in Oakland for a week. Taking that as incentive to settle down a bit, he returned to his family home in Los Angeles, and began illustrating and writing for magazines including Hustler, Ray Gun and Vice. Around the same time, he began his ongoing relationship with the Asian pop culture store-cum-magazine Giant Robot, which has continued to be mutually beneficial to this day. He also started showing his paintings to art galleries, which exhibited little interest. In defiance, Choe hung his work in an ice cream shop called Double Rainbow which was located on the hipster promenade Melrose Avenue. That impromptu exhibition was so successful that the store held it over for two years, with Choe replenishing pieces as they sold.