It was back in 1999 that a lantern-jawed young fellow with droopy eyes first arrived in the Big Smoke to seek his fortune. Like Dick Whittington, before him, D*Face didn’t travel alone. Keeping him company, hovering high above the city’s skyline, was his buck-toothed flying pet, D*Dog.
These two miscreants - both the creations of artist D*Face, rapidly established his reputation across London and the rest of the globe. Like many street artists, he then crossed over into the art world. He then took it a step further. Setting up the Outside Institute, he became a gallery owner and offered London a permanent space that would showcase the best in street art.
The inaugural show gave SEEN, the Godfather of Graffiti, his first ever UK exhibition. This was followed by a wealth of other street artists, old and new, including Banksy, Blade, Zedz, Tracy 168, Dave the Chimp and Flying Förtress. All were cracking shows, but critical success doesn’t always translate commercially and unfortunately last month the gallery shut its doors, as D*Face explains: “Put simply, we had the space rent free for a year, with the option to take up reduced rates for the subsequent years. We were coming to the end of the free period and the landlord wanted to know that we could pay the reduced rates. The problem was we were just about covering our costs paying no rent and the prospect of paying it, even at a discount, just wasn’t an option. So we took the decision to shut and look for somewhere new.”
The Institute’s location, in Paddington, bucked the trend of gallery openings in the East End. While in hindsight this may seem like a more obvious habitat, D*Face is clear about his choice: “Sure, the location was an issue - there were times when we’d pop out for lunch and get lost trying to find our own way back! But the space was so suitable for what we wanted to do; it wasn’t an opportunity I felt I could miss out on. If we’d wanted to do something that was going to stay off the radar, it would have been fantastic. However, in order to support ourselves, we needed a space that was also commercially viable; and in that respect, it was crap."
This wasn’t the only lesson. Each of the seven shows the Outside Institute put on was an education and D*Face has learnt from these experiences. With that in mind, the next incarnation of the gallery has a slightly different approach. Central to this is creating more time to focus on each show.
Having exhibited across the world himself, it’s an understandable sentiment, but one that begs the question – did spending so much time focused on other artists’ work cause his own to suffer? “Totally. It was crazy; like having two full-time jobs. I was manically trying to juggle my work with running the gallery, which is what I’d dreamt of doing for so long. In addition to having to put his personal work on the backburner, another problem was the attention of the authorities. By becoming a figurehead for the Institute, D*Face ensured its credibility. At the same time, he also gave the local council a high profile target that could be found, rather conveniently, most days of the week in the gallery.
“I’ll admit it, standing up and saying: ‘Here I am, this is the gallery and it’s a safe house for graffiti and street art,’ wasn’t the smartest of moves. It seemed so at the time, but the council soon brought that reality swiftly into check. Long story short, we had to get a criminal lawyer involved. Don’t get me wrong, I believe one hundred per cent in what we do as artists, but I’d be way more cautious next time.”
Since this interview, D*Face has moved the Outside Institute to the East End, and reopened it under a new name, StolenSpace. The legendary Dave Kinsey, along with UK artist Conor Harrington, appeared at the first show and it has become the site for major street art exhibitions from the leading players in the movement, including Shepard Fairey, who exhibited his acclaimed Nineteeneightyfouria show here.
www.dface.co.uk www.stolenspace.com
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