Renaissance & Rebellion - Flipbook - Page 24
DAVE TOU
DAVE TOURJÉ’s work reflects the history and family religions of his beloved Highland
Park neighborhood, where childhood was rough and wild but also colorful and lively,
thanks to the hot-rod, gang, and motocross cultures that permeated the LA consciousness
during his youth—and additionally an immersion into the great murals of Mexico City
when he lived there as a child. He is known for employing various techniques, nontraditional materials, and hybrid styles into a volatile but measured vision that combines
both narrative instances and abstract derivations based on his eclectic influences. He is a
master of his deliberately analog and unwieldy reverse-painting technique where he gets
the best of two worlds—gesture and perfection, as raw color and line assume a glossy,
architectural surface. He likes to build things, too, out of wood and concrete, resin and
polymers, favoring inconvenient but unforgettable handmade objects. Ed “Big Daddy”
Roth, Rick Griffin, Zap Comics, and Mad Magazine were at least as big a deal to Dave
as school was in forming his unique artistic identity, and his belief that a skate deck or a
longboard make the perfect place to put a painting.
CALIFORNIA
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