DALeast is a Chinese
born artist that lives and works in Capetown, South Africa. The
29-year-old, who keeps his real name a secret, has been making art since
he was three. His unusual paintings, which are sometimes hundreds of
feet across, looks three dimensional and appears to have been created
out of thousands of tiny metal shards. DALeast showed an
interest for drawing since he was two or three. When he grew up, he
studied Sculpture in the Fine Art Institute in his hometown Wuhan, but
dropped out in the fourth year – one year before he was supposed to
complete. DALeast was disillusioned by the conservative mind sets and
teaching methods. While in his first year of study, he joined a graffiti
crew called JEJ, which is one of the first generation active graffiti
crews in China. The teacher hated him because he would often neglect
class work, instead spending his time on the streets painting walls.
Once,
just before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, police broke into a house he was
staying in and arrested him and his graffiti crew. They thought they
were terrorists after they saw the group all night bombing and tagging.
DALeast
spends six months of the year travelling and has tagged walls on nearly
every continent. His works can be seen in Cape Town, Miami, New York
and London's Brick Lane, as well as his native China.
via
The Daily Mail and
Arrested Motion
Via
Amusing Planet