David Negri was born in 1968. He lives and works in Marseille.
It is not necessary to know the life of an artist to appreciate the work. But with Skunkdog, history is important. For when one hears his, one gets a better idea of what attracts, revels or upsets in his painting. We perceive love, excess, megalomania, violence, generosity, the gesture that never stops.
It is the painter Dijonnais Robelin who gives him his chance: to exhibit for the first time in a courtyard in Provence. From there, his dream takes shape.
He knows his life definitely devoted to art: “I pursued a dream since kid, without knowing that I had one”. Then follow the experiences, the openings, the universes and the meetings, including the one with Francoise Siffrein-Blanc, which will mark a turning point in his careerTaking affection for the character and her painting, Françoise organizes a hanging at home. Everything will follow each other very quickly. In one week, she finds another place to exhibit, and not least: the Greenhouse, alternative spot of the Jungle Movement, based in Soho in N.Y.C. Since then, Skunkdog dreams of the big apple paired with the Phocaean city.If the street is not his initiatory ground, the artist knows it well. He knows how to look at it, to make it his laboratory.The Paris break, the electric years, the first vibrations on canvas, mixed techniques without concessions, Marseille vandals … Open almost two decades ago, his creative journey continues between Crasse and Strass, Glam and Thrash. Skunkdog distills a raw work, highly flammable.At his touch, we sizzle electric, accelerate Punk. Pirate press of the eighties, typos alterno, European graffiti, photocopied flyers or fanzines and energy Do It Yourself innervate a hybrid and voracious aesthetic, seen on the walls of the galleries La Chapelle (Sète), B & amp; Barock ‘(Brussels), Ellia Art (Paris), Massalia (Marseille), in New York squats and now in the David Pluskwa Gallery – Contemporary Art.
