It was his mother, Julia, that unconsciously marked the creative path of her son, the later world-known artist Andy Warhol, by taking him to church every other day: constantly surrounded by religious images, the idea of the icon was stuck in his mind. As a result, Warhol chose the most famous Hollywood stars of his ages as main charachters of its serigraphs and, thanks to the serial repetition of the same images, he took them to the utter level of everlasting symbols.
Even though the fascinating 60s are far away, Lucas David, talented boy from Mexico, looked at Warhol’s art with an eye of our generation and reinterpreted the concept of the icon: he fearlessy decided to ‘kill his idols’, the ones of our contemporary worlds of music, fashion and cinema, by letting them slowly perish on a bed made of blood, pills, drugs and vomit.
Lucas started drawing when he was a teenager and through years he developed a unique and independent way of painting that now is leading him to huge appreciation and fame. The initial approach to his works of art is destabilizing, odd and naïve; ‘sick’ and ‘creepy’ are the first words that come to mind. But David’s style is deeper and rooted in fervid lines of thought: through bleeding noses, drugged eyes, pills and plenty of cigarettes, he portrays illness and vices of the stars of nowadays popular culture. He glamorizes the destruction and deterioration of the body in a genial, unthinkable and elegant way; the bright colors that burn out the paintings contrast with the slow and anguished fading away of his icons’ limbs.
Considering the techniques, Lucas prefers ink and acrylic, in other works he mixes, inserts texts, cuts and pastes, creating strong juxtapositions that impress the viewer; he asserted that his inspiration, beyond Warhol, comes from personalities such as photographers Steven Klein and Steven Meisel, and his personal modern muses are among all model Ali Michael, singers Sky Ferreira, Alice Glass and Courtney Love. He describes his art as ‘large shiny chunks of vomit’ and himself as a ‘genuine visionary of today’; his pieces bring you to a screaming underground limbo, full of sparkling trash and chic malaise, where ‘holy-drugged’ icons reign.
Thanks to social media Lucas David’s art became very popular and even the subject portrayed showed interests in the works, by reposting them and thanking for this sick but truly original depiction; furthermore, David hosted his first exhibition and collaborated with Taylor Momsen for The Pretty Reckless’ merchandise. Exciting projects will come soon, and they will shock for sure; meanwhile, you can buy his prints and merchandise with worldwide shipping.
Article by: Marina Lepori
More of Lucas David here: TUMBLR |INSTAGRAM |BIGCARTEL
