"Graffiti and street art really
don’t need to be defended much anymore. Besides some right-wing,
waste-of-brain art critics, most progressive art collectors and
galleries have been very welcoming to the new scene."
Danny Intro allows the essence of graffiti and street art to inform his design work. The explosions of color juxtaposed with a simple black image on a clean, white background is gives his work it's signature style.
GE: How did you first get into graffiti
art?
DI: I first got into graffiti at a very young age. I grew up
in NYC and was constantly surrounded by it. I remember trying to draw
bubble letters as early as 6 or 7. I made my first tag at about 10. I
started to get more serious with it, study techniques and eventually
learned how to paint in about 1999-2000, at the age of 13. It
may be cliche, but with graffiti art, the world is truly your canvas.
GE: As you go through your day, are you
constantly considering new surfaces you encounter as possible
canvases?
DI: I can’t go 5 minutes without looking at a spot on a highway, billboard, etc., and thinking about putting up some work. Although as of lately I haven’t done much illegal work, I still itch for it. It never leaves you. I just have different priorities than I did when I was 16 years old, mostly work and bills. That’s why I channeled a lot of my creative energy into gallery style pieces on canvas and wood panels. It’s just been a natural artistic progression for me - I never really plan anything.
GE: This idea of an explosion of color plays a big part in a lot of your work. Is there a significance behind this?
DI:The Controlled Explosions series was the first real cohesive series of gallery style artwork I put together. After years of doing letters and graffiti style artwork, I wanted to put a new twist on things. Besides being an artist, I work as a graphic designer and have a very clean style with a lot of white space. I’m a big fan of Paul Rand and his use of simplicity. Graffiti in essence is a very vibrant, explosive and colorful style of art and I wanted to capture that somehow without actually doing graffiti.
The paint splashes are the free
flowing expression that comes from my graffiti background. The static
monochromatic image juxtaposed to the loose and uncontrolled paint
splashes it really what gives my work it’s character, in my own
opinion.
There is some significance behind it, but every piece is different. I carefully pick my subject matter to be able to use the color as a catalyst for whatever expression or feeling I’m trying to relate. I never actually tell anyone what I was thinking or what it means to me. That would take away all the fun!
GE: In a public space, many times you see that a graffiti artist has painted over another artist’s work. Is this a justified action in the world of graffiti art?
DI: There are many unwritten ‘rules’ of graffiti etiquette. It’s so in depth and the terminology is so foreign to an outsider that its hard to explain. Basically, if you have a problem with someone, you cross them out. If you crossed someone out, then he has the right to go over your work, but you still have the right to come reclaim this spot. Also if you’re doing something more impressive its generally okay to go over someone's work. But there's problems with that logic too. Like I said its complicated…
GE: An admirer of your work can definitely see similarities to that of Banksy’s work. Do you appreciate that comparison?
DI: I don’t dislike it, but it sounds very elementary to me. Everyone knows Banksy because he’s sort of a pop culture icon for street art. Its like 'the cool thing to do', as compared to liking a popular band of sorts. His work is great but when I hear that from someone I know you don’t know much about the street art movement.
I’m much more in tuned with someone like Blek Le Rat, who is the pioneer of stencil art. Most people never heard of Blek because hes about 60 right now and isn’t as 'cool' as Banksy. But let me assure you, Banksy took tips from that guy too.
GE: How would you defend graffiti art to someone that might claim that it is not a form of fine art? Do you feel that you would even need to defend it?
DI: Graffiti and street art really don’t need to be defended much anymore. Besides some right-wing, waste-of-brain art critics, most progressive art collectors and galleries have been very welcoming to the new scene. They see the energy it emits and the response it evokes from people. It’s hard to deny.
Recently LA MOCA just held the first major U.S. Museum exhibition of the history of graffiti and street art, “Art in the Streets”. The show clearly legitimized the movement. It was supposed to come to the Brooklyn Museum, but right-wing lobbyists shot it down. In my opinion, it was because the artwork relates to more people - its not just for the elite to enjoy. They had an outpouring of kids visit the museum, which would generally never set foot in a museum. That’s the great positive impact which graffiti and street art can bring; it engages kids in a positive art form that they can relate too, unlike a lot of other ‘boring' art forms.
People's main claim is that it stemmed from illegal activity. I didn’t know the law was part of judging artist merit. It’s an ad Hominem argument: a strategy used when you don’t really have a legitimate point to make.
I don’t even consider myself a ‘graffiti’ artist either. I’m just an artist that does graffiti. Classifications drive me nuts because they’re limiting. Its hard to grow when your classified.
Right now the current graffiti/street/fine art movement is kind of in a hybrid evolution. Everyone pulling bits and pieces from all different facets of art and making a new evolving style. It’s been coined Hybridism and Graffuturism by prominent art bloggers, the reason being that most people started in the graffiti scene and evolved as they got older into something else.
DI: I can’t go 5 minutes without looking at a spot on a highway, billboard, etc., and thinking about putting up some work. Although as of lately I haven’t done much illegal work, I still itch for it. It never leaves you. I just have different priorities than I did when I was 16 years old, mostly work and bills. That’s why I channeled a lot of my creative energy into gallery style pieces on canvas and wood panels. It’s just been a natural artistic progression for me - I never really plan anything.
GE: This idea of an explosion of color plays a big part in a lot of your work. Is there a significance behind this?
DI:The Controlled Explosions series was the first real cohesive series of gallery style artwork I put together. After years of doing letters and graffiti style artwork, I wanted to put a new twist on things. Besides being an artist, I work as a graphic designer and have a very clean style with a lot of white space. I’m a big fan of Paul Rand and his use of simplicity. Graffiti in essence is a very vibrant, explosive and colorful style of art and I wanted to capture that somehow without actually doing graffiti.
There is some significance behind it, but every piece is different. I carefully pick my subject matter to be able to use the color as a catalyst for whatever expression or feeling I’m trying to relate. I never actually tell anyone what I was thinking or what it means to me. That would take away all the fun!
GE: In a public space, many times you see that a graffiti artist has painted over another artist’s work. Is this a justified action in the world of graffiti art?
DI: There are many unwritten ‘rules’ of graffiti etiquette. It’s so in depth and the terminology is so foreign to an outsider that its hard to explain. Basically, if you have a problem with someone, you cross them out. If you crossed someone out, then he has the right to go over your work, but you still have the right to come reclaim this spot. Also if you’re doing something more impressive its generally okay to go over someone's work. But there's problems with that logic too. Like I said its complicated…
GE: An admirer of your work can definitely see similarities to that of Banksy’s work. Do you appreciate that comparison?
DI: I don’t dislike it, but it sounds very elementary to me. Everyone knows Banksy because he’s sort of a pop culture icon for street art. Its like 'the cool thing to do', as compared to liking a popular band of sorts. His work is great but when I hear that from someone I know you don’t know much about the street art movement.
I’m much more in tuned with someone like Blek Le Rat, who is the pioneer of stencil art. Most people never heard of Blek because hes about 60 right now and isn’t as 'cool' as Banksy. But let me assure you, Banksy took tips from that guy too.
GE: How would you defend graffiti art to someone that might claim that it is not a form of fine art? Do you feel that you would even need to defend it?
DI: Graffiti and street art really don’t need to be defended much anymore. Besides some right-wing, waste-of-brain art critics, most progressive art collectors and galleries have been very welcoming to the new scene. They see the energy it emits and the response it evokes from people. It’s hard to deny.
Recently LA MOCA just held the first major U.S. Museum exhibition of the history of graffiti and street art, “Art in the Streets”. The show clearly legitimized the movement. It was supposed to come to the Brooklyn Museum, but right-wing lobbyists shot it down. In my opinion, it was because the artwork relates to more people - its not just for the elite to enjoy. They had an outpouring of kids visit the museum, which would generally never set foot in a museum. That’s the great positive impact which graffiti and street art can bring; it engages kids in a positive art form that they can relate too, unlike a lot of other ‘boring' art forms.
People's main claim is that it stemmed from illegal activity. I didn’t know the law was part of judging artist merit. It’s an ad Hominem argument: a strategy used when you don’t really have a legitimate point to make.
I don’t even consider myself a ‘graffiti’ artist either. I’m just an artist that does graffiti. Classifications drive me nuts because they’re limiting. Its hard to grow when your classified.
Right now the current graffiti/street/fine art movement is kind of in a hybrid evolution. Everyone pulling bits and pieces from all different facets of art and making a new evolving style. It’s been coined Hybridism and Graffuturism by prominent art bloggers, the reason being that most people started in the graffiti scene and evolved as they got older into something else.
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