David Choe
David Choe (born April 21, 1976) is an American figure painter, muralist, graffiti artist and graphic novelist of Korean descent. His figure paintings, which explore themes of desire, degradation, and exaltation, are characterized by a raw, frenetic tone that he has termed "dirty style." In the graffiti world, he is identified with the bucktoothed whale he has been spray-painting on the streets since he was in his teens. He is the most confrontational artist in the already aggressive world of urban art. He paints delicate kaleidoscopic pictures, sometimes even in pastel watercolours, that usually revel in aggression and sexual violence. Not only is he one of the first street artists to forgo traditional graffiti writing for narrative murals, he is one of a select band of creatives who spit in the face of political correctness, only to be lauded by the very individuals they so deride.