David Puck Blurs the Line Between Street Art and Gallery Magnificence


INSIDE OUT E


motions are like flames. They spark suddenly, grow intensely, and consume us madly. Artist David Puck harnesses humanity’s ever-raging inferno, depicting our yearning and passion through evocative brush


strokes of fiery pink and simmering purple. “I’m really interested in how you can balance


abstraction with realism and still have a recognizable portrait,” Puck said. “You can see the emotion in them.” That’s an understatement supreme! Puck captures


the essence of LGBTQ life in pastel perfume bottles, then shatters them brilliantly across his tableau of choice. “Since I started painting, I was always drawn


towards representing people in our community, in particular people who aren’t represented as often,” he said. “I love to paint a pretty face, but when a lot of artists do that, you end up just reflecting back the same kind of homogenous representation that we get in mainstream media anyway.” Punctuating his point, Puck elaborates: “There had


been a tendency in recent years for queer art to be hypersexual— lots of muscular male bodies. While that serves a function, it really doesn’t interest me. I would rather explore other parts of queer life. We have so many stories to tell; it’s not just about sex.” Diversity is the ultimate destination for Puck,


who began his artistic journey across the proverbial pond. “I’m from the countryside in England and growing


up, my family was quite conservative,” he said. “Making art was something that I needed to discover for myself, and then became something that was really important for me to develop as a person. It’s something that I want to give back to the community in whatever way I can.” Puck harvests inspiration from his gay contem-


poraries. “Queer art is a reflection of the queer community


itself,” he said. “We are the most diverse community that exists because we’re not bound by country, by race, by gender, by anything! That speaks to what variety we get. I think that’s reflected in queer art too.” To David Puck, there is no hard boundary between


LGBTQ-land and the rest of the world. “To me, the point of making queer work is that our


community is all about acceptance and compassion and diversity and about understanding and com- municating with others,” he said. “I think these values that we hold in the queer community, those values are so important for everyone. If everyone, whether they’re queer or not, no matter how you identify or where you’re from, if we all lived with those values, then I think it would be a nicer place to be.” Puck is an ambassador of inclusion, spreading his


gay gospel to those who need it most: “Doing queer/ street art, I’m often asked to do queer neighbor- hoods and queer bars and stuff, which is great and I love doing it, but I’m always looking to be in spaces where you usually wouldn’t see that imagery.” Relishing the opportunity to transcend orienta-


tions, Puck continued: “They’re public murals and you don’t see that kind of work very often, where you have this bold queer art in a non-queer space. The message of that is something that can be universal … it is in a public space with no echo chamber, with no filter, with no censorship.” So, how does Puck alter his style from street art to


gallery esteem? Simple: He doesn’t. “I try and keep the two really coherent,” he said.


“That’s something I’m working on, technique-wise, to find a way to have the two match each other. How paint functions, there are just certain things you can do in a gallery piece that are very difficult or that you can’t do on a wall. But thematically, for me, they’re exactly the same. They work in relationship to each other.”


The daring dichotomy of Puck’s vision has found


a welcoming home at A Love Bizarre, the creative collective located in the hip LA enclave of Atwater Village. More than just a gallery, A Love Bizarre is a sensory celebration. “Our space houses a rotating spectrum of 40-plus,


queer-focused artists and goods at any given time,” founder Nathan Rapport said. “The dual mission of the space: to serve as a rotating visual art gallery of LGBTQIA artists and a community center for queer events and gatherings.” In one short year, Rapport has established a lasting


legacy of expression: “We’re thrilled with what we’ve accomplished, and the upcoming solo exhibitions are all very exciting.” Puck is one of the shimmering stars in Rapport’s


gallery galaxy, and he paints his latest showcase with the following strokes: “Queer, psychological, abstracted portraits. That’s like the tagline, if I have to try and describe to someone what they are.” Digging deeper, Puck reflects: “Thematically, it’s


always about queerness and about mental health and psychology, so that’s the thread of coherence through them for me.” Puck’s fascination between the internal and


external is flourishing into a new passion project. “I’m working right now on a video series where I


interview queer people about mental health and their individual experiences, whilst live-painting their portrait with visual symbolic reflections of their story. Basically, to make painting more of a collabora- tive process,” he said. But the ultimate connection occurs between the


gazer and the gazed. Puck’s art immerses viewers into a neon nirvana, bathed in beauty yet authentic to its core. How will Puck’s intoxicating aesthetic become amplified and galvanized via his upcoming video series? Stay tuned. davidpuckartist.com or @davidpuckartist on Instagram (continues on page 34)


March 2020 | @theragemonthly 33


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