When an artist themselves can’t describe their style, that’s a good indicator it’s truly unique.
All Images: Gallery 1988
“I don’t really know how to categorise it,” said London-based artist Dan Mumford, whose solo show Chroma opens at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles December 8.
“It developed from my love of comics and graphic novels and trying to replicate that when I was younger,” he explained. “Alongside that, I experimented with screen printing techniques around 12 years ago and the way I colour and shade came from that. So it’s a sort of mash-up of classic inking with screen printing techniques, but all done digitally. I think how I shade and do my colouring is quite different to how most people in this field work, but it does give what I do a certain look.”
A “certain look” is right. Here’s our exclusive reveal of five pieces (out of 19 total) that appear in Chroma. They have some recognisable elements, of course, but Mumford’s art interprets them in a way that’s completely unique.
As you can see, Mumford’s style is very colourful, very intricate, and very hard to assign adjectives too. He’s been developing that look over around 10 years as a professional artist, and has been working for the past four months on this show, usually spending two to three days on each piece.
“This show is built mainly around classics and films that really inspired me when I was younger,” he said. “Things that filled me with awe at their visuals or have a special place in my memory. When it comes to creating a piece I always rewatch the subject in hand, and try and work out what is important to the viewer, what relationships can we utilise, what characters, I go quite in depth in a way, it’s normally not just about the visual.”
These pieces and others will first be on display starting at 7PM on December 8 at Gallery 1988 is Los Angeles. The show will then remain on display through December 30. For information on the gallery, click here.