New Daze Mural Champions Free Speech

Almost brushing architect Louis Kahns famed tetrahedral ceiling with his curly locks, the contemporary American artist Christopher Daze Ellis stood atop a ladder, painting in the geometric clipped-corner tile shapes that are part of a multi-section mural he is creating in the lower level of the Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG).

As part of a 20-day residence at Yale spread over several months, Daze is painting the floor-to-ceiling,12-tall-by-36-long mural with the help of a few Yale art student volunteers. Those students are getting the experience of painting with an internationally recognized muralist with two works presently on display in YUAGs modern and contemporary arts section.

Yale junior Annelisa Leinback (pictured), who has periodically assisted with mural sketching and painting from the beginning of the project, said the murals theme of freedom resonated with her. She also found it amazing that something I helped with will be part of a permanent installation.

Dazes bio chronicles over three decades of mural making from the United States to Paris and Beijing. His work has included a mural for the Star ferry terminal in Hong Kong, lectures at Hofstra University and the Bronx Museum, completing the design of an entire train station in Hannover, Germany alongside fellow artists Lee Quinones and Crash, youth workshops with kids during the Hutuz festival in Rio de Janeiro, and completing a mural for the Vivo City shopping center in Singapore. He has pieces in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of New York, The Groniger Museum in the Netherlands, and the Ludwig Museum in Aachen, Germany.

Dazes trajectory as a successful artist has been the result of reinvention and a willingness to challenge himself. People that are real artists always step it up a notch. They continue to try to make it interesting for themselves they continually challenge themselves, he said in an interview after a recent painting session at YUAG.

Dazes bold, graphic compositions reveal elements of a spirited visual vocabulary rooted in the work of his early years in New York as a graffiti artist or writer, an era from which he emerged as an international legend of the aerosol medium. One of the early sales of his work after his transition to canvas was made in the company of 20th-century icons Keith Haring and Jean-Michele Basquiat, with whom he had several collaborations.

Opening his first studio in his late teens began a period of work that, perhaps more than anything, marked a turning point in his career as an artist. He used proceeds from one of his earliest sales to buy more art supplies. I didnt know how long this was going to last and at least when times were slow, Id still be able to work.

Daze noted that his new mural at Yale, painted exclusively with a brush, is different from others hes done. I primarily do murals with spray paint, but because of restrictions within the museum, I couldnt use spray paint, so my approach to it is more like doing a painting on canvas. Its kind of a first. Im able to work much faster with spray paint. This is taking longer, but Im embracing the process as something different. Its good to get out of the box and out of your comfort zone.

Part of getting out of his comfort zone will be undertaking an entirely new medium, as the artist produces a limited edition of etchings working alongside Yale School of Art student Mauricio Cortes Ortega.

Ive never done any etching before so Im learning about that process as I go said Daze.

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New Daze Mural Champions Free Speech