Shai Dahan

Shai Dahan
Known for Contemporary art, graffiti, Street Art, public art
Movement Street Art, Contemporary
Awards TEDxGoteborg keynote speaker, United Buddy Bear , Sjuhärad Top-20 most successful talents

Shai Dahan (born 1979) is an American contemporary painter and street artist who works with painting, drawing, illustrations and installations.

In 2007, Dahan moved to New York City where he participated in street-art projects such as the NYSAT, Underbelly Project, and MOM&POPism. He also began to exhibit his art with galleries in Los Angeles, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. In July 2012, Shai received recognition for his solo exhibition at the Borås Art Museum in Sweden. He was later featured as the opening keynote speaker at TEDx[1] Göteborg in October 2012. Shai was also awarded to paint a two-meter United Buddy Bear[2] for the city of Borås in Sweden. A limited edition version of the United Buddy Bears were also created by Shai as part of the Borås Buddy Bear Mini Festival in December.

In 2013, Shai co-founded EAST 39th, a Men'swear clothing branch based in Sweden. The brand designs, markets, and distributes men fashion apparel across Scandinavia.

In 2014 Dahan curated No Limit Borås Street Art Festival[3] in Borås, Sweden. The festival, which was first announced in September 2013, composed of both international Street-Artists as well as Swedish artists. Artists who participated in the first No Limit festival included Natalia Rak (Poland), ECB Hendrik (Germany), Kobra (Brazil), Etam Cru (Poland), Ollio (Sweden), Carolina Falkholt (Sweden), Ekta (Sweden), Issac Cordal (Spain).Peeta (Italy) and The London Police (Netherlands). The festival was funded and organized by BoråsBorås (part of the Borås Stad Municipality).

Life and career

Shai Dahan was born in Haifa, Israel and moved to the United States in 1989. He began his art career in Los Angeles, where he was highly involved with the skateboarding and surf culture. At 14, Dahan was introduced to the graffiti culture and started to create graffiti influenced art. In his early 20's, he continued painting urban influenced art on skateboards and surfboards for projects and charities, including "Life Rolls On"[4] charity in Los Angeles as well as STOKED Mentoring[5] in NYC.

Shortly after moving to Manhattan in 2007, Dahan took part in the New York Street Advertising Takeover[6] through Public Ad Campaign. Since then, Dahan also took part in the Toranto Street Advertising Takeover,[7] as well as the Madrid Street Advertising Takeover.[8]

In 2009, Dahan participated in MOM&POPism,[9] a project presented by Gawker Media to present street-artist painting over the photographs of James and Karla Murray. The project was published as a book[10] in 2011 by Gingko Press.

Dahan also designed the Spirit Award[11] for Stoked Mentoring which honored pro skateboarder Rob Dyrdek. The award was created by Dahan and given to Rob at the event held in Los Angeles in December, 2009.

In mid 2010, Dahan was part of the Underbelly Project[12] in New York City. He was one of 103 other street-artists invited as a select group to paint an abandoned subway station. The project, which received much media attention through the New York Times[13] and London Times, was also published as a book titled "We Own The Night"[14] in 2012 through Rizzoli Publication.

After moving to Sweden in late 2010, Dahan continued to exhibit internationally, as well as in Scandinavia including solo exhibitions in Gothenburg and Stockholm and most notably, a solo exhibit at the Modern Art Museum in Borås, Sweden. This was the first time the museum invited an artist from a graffiti/street-art background.

In June 2011, Dahan painted a live mural at the Gothenburg STCC Race VIP Dinner[15] which included the car racing team of Prince Philip of Sweden.

In January 2012 the Borås Art Museum[16] invited Dahan for a solo exhibition to run from May until September 2012. The exhibition was the first time the museum invited an artist with a graffiti/street-art background to do an exhibition. As part of the museum exhibit, Dahan was invited by the city of Borås to add a permanent mural in the city center for their bi-annual International Sculpture Festival.[17] The mural of two running Dala Horses at the city center at Sandvallplats eventually was used on the publication cover for the city of Borås quarterly magazine[18] for the end quarter of 2012.

Shai Dahan's mural at Sandvallplats in Sweden 2012

In May 2012, Dahan travelled to Bethlehem in palestinian territories. The trip was documented for a documentary film titled "Art on the Seam"[19] and produced by David Freid and is due to release in late 2012. Dahan painted a large 5 meter mural of an Arab bedouin[20] on the West Bank Barrier wall in Bethlehem after spending 3 days in palestinian territories. In October 2012, Dahan gave a keynote at TEDx Gotebörg[21] titled "Beyond Borders." His keynote at TEDx was about his trip to Palestine and the mural he painted there.[22]

In December, Shai was awarded in the city of Borås (Sweden) to create a two-meter United Buddy Bear. The sculpture was hand painted by Shai with the Swedish Dala Horse patterns that he normally combines to his artworks. The Buddy Bear was then revealed at a ceremony and installed permanently at the city tourist bureau. The city also introduced a limited edition mini versions of the bear Shai created. The edition mini bears were awarded to local sponsors of the Borås Buddy Bear Mini Festival.

Techniques and themes

Throughout his career, Dahan has used different techniques for his outdoor artwork as well as his gallery collection. This includes stencil, wheatpasting, as well as using both acrylics, oils and spraypaint. Dahan creates hybrids of the urban arts culture mixed with fine art work. In the past, Dahan created his now much recognizable "BirdGun"[23] series which depicts birds with weapons for their heads. This theme eventually grew into including other animals with guns for their heads including a series of DeerGuns,[24] Elkguns, and others.

After moving to Sweden in 2010, Dahan began to create a new reinvention of the Swedish Dala Horse (Dalecarlian horse). Dahan began to paint the Swedish traditional Dala Horse as a realistic horse that carries the Kurbits colors and patterns of the original wooden statuettes. Shortly after creating a few illegal Dala Horse wheatpastes around neighborhoods in Sweden, Dahan's paintings began to generate media attention. After his Dala Horses were published in the newspaper in the city of Borås (Borås Tidning[25]) as well as at Gothenburg Posten[26] publication in Gothenburg, Dahan began to get much attention for his Dala Horse painting and has been mostly recognized in Scandinavian countries for his technique of painting wild horses as the historic Dalahästs.

In 2012, Dahan received representation from A Gallery[27] in Gothenburg, Sweden as well as representation from Lars Bolin Gallery in Östersund.

Publications

Books

Magazines

Online

Television

Radio

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Selected group shows

Other projects

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shai Dahan.
  1. ↑ "The Language of Street-Art: Shai Dahan at TEDxGöteborg". YouTube - TedxTalks.
  2. ↑ "United Buddy Bear".
  3. ↑ "No Limit Street-Art Festival".
  4. ↑ "3rd Annual Night By The Ocean Auction Catalog" (PDF).
  5. ↑ "Abztract supports STOKED AWARDS 2009". BirdGunBlog.
  6. ↑ "New York Street Advertising Takeover, Episode 2". Unurth Street Art.
  7. ↑ "Toronto Street Advertising Takeover". publicadcampaign.com.
  8. ↑ "Madrid Street Advertising Takeover". publicadcampaign.com.
  9. ↑ "mom & popism". designboom.
  10. 1 2 Mom & Popism [Board Book]. Gingko Press. 2011. ISBN 1584234210.
  11. ↑ "PICS FROM SPIRIT OF THE HOLIDAY". Stoked.
  12. ↑ "The Underbelly Project".
  13. ↑ "The Underbelly Project". The New York Times.
  14. ↑ We Own the Night: The Art of the Underbelly Project [Paperback]. Rizzoli. 2012. ISBN 0789324946.
  15. ↑ "STCC @ PORT DU SOLEIL BILDER". finest.
  16. ↑ "Tidigare utställningar". boras.se.
  17. ↑ "Borås Internationella Skulpturbiennal 2012". boras.se.
  18. ↑ "Boras Magazine". The Vacant Wall.
  19. ↑ "Art on the Seam".
  20. 1 2 "NEW PIECE ON PALESTINE WALL BY SHAI DAHAN". Brooklyn Street Art.
  21. ↑ "Shai Dahan – Street-Artist".
  22. ↑ "TedxGoteborg YouTube".
  23. ↑ "AnimalNY Birdgun".
  24. ↑ "Flickr Deergun".
  25. ↑ "Borås Tidning". The Vacant Wall.
  26. ↑ "Gatukonst på ny vägg". GP.
  27. ↑ "URBAN ARTIST / PAINTER". a gallery.
  28. ↑ We Own the Night: The Art of the Underbelly Project [Hardcover]. Rizzoli. 2012. ISBN 0789324954.
  29. ↑ "TV: Se när Shai Dahan skapar ett konstverk - på tre minuter".
  30. ↑ "Lekfullt möte mellan graff och popkultur". Fria Tidning.
  31. ↑ "Konst som gror i asfalten". Gothenburg Expressen.
  32. ↑ "Kulturkalaset med två sjuhäringar". SVT Radio.
  33. ↑ "Gatukonst på ny vägg". Gothenburg Posten.
  34. ↑ "Introducing Shai Dahan of Abztract". Street Giant.
  35. ↑ "SHAI DAHAN IN SWEDEN, NATURALLY. READYING FOR NEW SOLO SHOW". Brooklyn Street Art.
  36. ↑ "Philofix".
  37. ↑ "TedX sprider idéer bortom gränser". TV4.
  38. ↑ "Gigantiska målningar ska pryda Borås väggar".
  39. ↑ "Shai Dahan utmanar boråsarna".
  40. ↑ "Buddy Bear på plats i Borås".
  41. ↑ "Kulturkalaset med två sjuhäringar".
  42. ↑ "Graffiti på tapeten".
  43. ↑ "Lars Bolin solo exhibition".
  44. ↑ "A Gallery solo exhibition".
  45. ↑ "Boras Museum solo exhibition".
  46. ↑ "Scarlett Gallery solo exhibition".
  47. ↑ "Vincent Michael Gallery solo exhibition".
  48. ↑ "Crewest Holiday Bizzare group show".
  49. ↑ "Mighty Tanaka Gallery group show".
  50. ↑ "Forbes Magazine Aqueduct Murals".
  51. ↑ "Street Art News Web".
  52. ↑ "No Limit Festival Press Release".
  53. ↑ "EAST 39th Web".
  54. ↑ "Project Playground".
  55. ↑ "Underbelly Project Book Amazon".
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