BOSTON, MA – Childs Gallery presents Chris DAZE Ellis: The Asphalt Jungle, an exhibition of recent paintings and prints by celebrated graffiti artist Chris Ellis – best known by his street name, Daze. Hailed as one of the most important graffiti artists of his generation, Daze earned his stripes writing graffiti in the New York City subway in the mid-1970s, later transitioning to canvas in the early 1980s. Using spray paint in combination with the more traditional media of oil and acrylic, Daze’s dynamic paintings capture the grittiness and spontaneous energy of city life.

The city – The Asphalt Jungle – has always been central to Daze’s art. The urban environment is at once his subject, his muse, at times even his canvas. Graffiti itself is a uniquely urban medium, born of and tied to the built environment. Cities and the millions of stories that comprise them have provided Daze with endless inspiration throughout his career, and the paintings on view in The Asphalt Jungle are no exception. Daze’s most recent work, his Gray Scale paintings, emphasize the grittiness of the city with looming shadows, thick grainy impasto, and a monochrome palette.

Never just an illustration of urban space, Daze’s paintings blend abstraction and representation, spontaneity and control. Paintings like Strays on the Deuce, 2012 fluctuate between surface and  depth, depicting realistic scenes of city life, while simultaneously evoking the graffiti scrawled surface of a concrete wall. Daze writes, “I’ve always tried to find the perfect balance in my work between expression and representation, abstraction and realism. I try to further that balance by creating work that conveys deep thought and conviction, yet remains spontaneous and gestural.” 

Daze began his prolific career as a teenager in the mid-1970s, tagging subway cars alongside fellow writers Crash, Seen, Lady Pink, and Futura. Daze turned to canvas in the early 1980s, becoming one of the few artists from that period to successfully transition from the subways to the studio. In 1981 his work was featured in the Mudd Club group exhibition Beyond Words, alongside work by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. His first solo show was held in 1982 at Fashion Moda, a gallery in the Bronx.

Daze has since exhibited internationally and his work can be found in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Brooklyn Museum, The Museum of the City of New York, Yale University Art Gallery, and The Addison Gallery of American Art. Over the years, Daze has also completed numerous public art projects. These include murals for the Star Ferry terminal in Hong Kong, a train station in Hannover, Germany, a shopping center in Singapore, and youth workshops during the Hutuz festival in Rio de Janeiro. Daze's paintings have found themselves in the private collections of Madonna and Eric Clapton, among others.

Childs Gallery held an opening reception for the exhibition on Saturday, November 19, 4-6 PM. Daze made a personal appearance.