Nothing to Declare
Lazarides Gallery- Los Angeles, CA
04/23-05-23

Lazarides Gallery is pleased to announce David Choe’s return to LA after a six-year hiatus from exhibiting in his old stomping ground. The extremely prolific Choe has been hard at work creating new paintings, drawings, and sculptures for the 8,000 sq ft space in Beverly Hills.

Driven by an unquenchable thirst for life, Choe saps every possible drop of experience – good or bad – out of his tremendous adventures. From incarceration in a Tokyo jail to hitchhiking down the Mississippi River via paddleboat, freight train hopping city to city and hunting for dinosaurs in the Congo jungle, David weaves these encounters into his work projecting a dramatic and fantastical, often sexually explicit, vision of the world.

As one of the most technically proficient artists around today, no media is left untouched. Utilizing a combination of spray paint, oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache and urine, Choe works his magic on wood, cardboard, polyurethane and canvas. From the artist who first exhibited in an ice-cream parlor, expect no less than a sensory melting pot of life seen through his eyes:

“I am a typical artist, so I’m definitely my own worst enemy, my irritable bowel syndrome being a close second, I self destruct constantly, I suicide bomb my own s**t weekly, and destroy everything that is good and pure in my life. I love and hate LA. I was born and raised here, this is the city where I first fought, f**ked, farted, and rioted. I f**king love the s**t out of this city and I hate it with all my heart. This is the city that never gave me an art show so I had to exhibit at an ice cream parlor. I want to burn this city to the ground.

This is the city that came out in hundreds to see my movie premiere and made my parents proud. I want to face f**k this city. Either way It’s been way too long Los Angeles, and I’m sorry I had to leave in the first place, but you were really annoying the s**t out of me, but I forgive you. I’m sorry I left you when you needed me most, I’ve seen these horrible atrocious art shows you’ve been subject to, I seen these wacked out gimmicky douchey group shows and art walks you been sexually and mentally harassed by, and I’m here to tell you, I’m coming soon, and maybe you’ll appreciate me and not take me for granted this time. Lets make the dysfunction work for us, ok? I promise to try harder if you try harder. It’s been 6 long years since my last show here when you f**ked me and I left you. In that time I’ve seen things, I’ve heard things, I’ve felt things I’ve never felt before, I’ve been hitch-hiking all over the globe, I’ve been to Japanese jails, African jungles, Chinese torture chambers, the Whitehouse, and to all 7 levels of hell and back.

On the 23rd April 2010, I will have my first solo art show with Lazarides. I will take all my love all my hate all my pain all my rage, all my suffering and all my skills and experience I’ve collected over the years, everything I’ve learned in every medium from watercolors to oils to spraypaint, I’m gonna express everything I feel about this city and what it is to live and die and be born again in the City of Angels…. Los Angeles, I’m coming home, and when I come this time, I’m gonna come harder than I ever have before…

April 23- May 23, 2010

Lazarides Gallery
320 North Beverly Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210

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http://www.davidchoe.com/