David B. Smith Gallery

Artist Biography:

Inspired by the dynamism of his native New York City and its role as an incubator of the outlaw art of graffiti, Greg Lamarche’s collages combine the city’s relentless rhythm and graffiti’s aggressive presence to express the power, elegance and rebelliousness of urban creativity. Using found materials and commercially printed papers from his vast collection of vintage printed matter, Lamarche abstracts graffiti’s visual language, playing with a profusion of font styles, word fragments, multiple layers, bold colors, rhythmic repetition, multiple perspective and movement. Each unique work of precisely hand-cut paper thus becomes an interplay of the directness of graphic design and the aesthetics of fine art.

Born and raised in New York, Greg Lamarche created his first collages in the sixth grade when he used fireworks wrappers found in his schoolyard. In 1981 he began writing graffiti on the streets and subways, and published SKILLS, the graffiti movement magazine, in the early 1990s.

Lamarche has worked as both fine artist and graphic designer since 2000, and has been featured in numerous publications including the New York Times, Print, Juxtapoz, Modern Painters and Arkitip among others. His work is also featured in several new books, including GRAFFITI NEW YORK (Eric Felisbret, author; Luke Felisbret, contributor; forward by James Prigoff; October 2009, Abrams. publishers) and CUTTING EDGES: CONTEMPORARY COLLAGE, (R. Klantin, H. Hellige and J. Gallagher, editors; February 2011, Die Gestalten Verlag, publishers). Lamarche created the cover graphic for the upcoming WORLD PIECEBOOK (Sacha Jenkins, David Villorente, authors; to be released May 2011, Prestel USA, publishers.)