I met Chris Wolford a little over a year ago, at about the same time I was discovering graffiti culture, Banksy’s legendary stencils and this whole “new” concept of street art (which until now I hadn’t been exposed to all that much.) Chris leads a local Los Angeles based art collective called Dethkills with his best friend Bobby Alderman, and the art they create together puts an entirely new spin on things.
The collective consists of anywhere from 10 to 20 local artists at any given time, and together they’ve created a signature style using a combination of graffiti art and traditional painting techniques. They do absolutely everything themselves, from hammering together the panels they’ll be painting on, to screen printing their own Dethkills brand T-shirt designs. It’s a process they’ve learned to do quickly, and when they perform live painting installations, it takes the concept of fine art and totally rockifies it. They’re like visual troubadours, approaching virtually any venue as if they were performing live music. The group will band together on stage and create an entire painting from scratch over the course of a night, allowing the audience to witness their collaborative process from start to finish.
It’s a new kind of art – more communal, more of a reflection of the world we live in, and they’re really paying it forward. Their passion and creativity have helped inspire me since the day I met them, and I hope they come to inspire you the same way. I’m currently in the process of putting together a short documentary on these guys, so check back again soon. www.dethkills.com
See the shots as they happen in this Dethkills Collective video made entirely of still images.