Dave Pop!

Dave Pop! was born in Swansea in 1969, he studied Fine Art at Coventry University and moved to Brighton in the early 90’s. The lure of the city’s exotic nightlife saw Dave becoming a club kid, wearing outrageous outfits, and making them for local drag queens. He even became a wannabe pop star, and had a single released ‘Am I in love, or am I insane’. Sadly, it failed to set the charts aflame, but there are still many videos on you tube, ‘Too much make up’ is definitely worth checking out.

After failing to find fame and fortune in the music world, Dave left it all behind and found a ‘normal’ job as a chocolatier. This career used Dave’s talents to create outrageous chocolate sculptures for the rich and famous, including Kylie Minogue, Jackie Collins and Boy George. Ironically, it was while working at Choccywoccydoodah, Dave found some fame at last, for making these crazy cakes, and was a main character in seven series of ‘Choccywoccydoodah’ the TV show, which is still aired now.

Unfortunately, Choccy took a nosedive in early 2019, so Dave took the opportunity to launch himself as a full time artist, ‘Wonderful Darling’ being his first solo show in Brush Gallery Brighton. Dave has previously exhibited in the Theatre Royal with a Rocky Horror theme, painted a large mural on Brighton Palace pier, collaborated with Jeremy Hoye on a range of jewelry, as well as other exhibitions around Brighton.

The pop art stars, Warhol, Lichtenstein and Koons are Dave’s obvious heroes, but also renaissance masters such as Michelangelo and Rubens, which leads Dave to create classical nudes in a pop art style. The city of Brighton also makes its mark, with its trashy, tacky seafront, and vintage fairground style art and carousel horses. The art process always starts with drawing; this is fundamental to all of Dave's work. Pencil sketches are then refined into ink drawings, then scanned, digitally manipulated, printed & painted over, creating a combination of hand made brush strokes, splats, spots and perfectly smooth lines.