Book Release for STENCILS and Celebration of the Life and Art of David King

This event had been planned for some time as a launch party for David King's long-overdue monograph featuring his iconic stencil-only designs. Sadly, David passed away recently but friends, family and colleagues decided to continue on with the launch event but to also make it a celebration of the life and work of David King.

The new book STENCILS starts with his legendary logo for the UK band Crass and continues to the present day. Both the artist’s process and finished output are on display in this revealing collection, from the covered-in-layers-of-paint stencils themselves to the drawings and designs outlining the thought process and ultimately the final art. Many of these works used multiple stencils and colors to create one-off finished pieces that you’re likely to find only within the pages of this book.

David King grew up in post-war London and attended art school there between 1964 and 1967. He worked as an art director for a decade thereafter, but left the commercial art world as he became more involved in creating music and confrontational graphics. He moved to New York and was commissioned to do graphics for clubs like Danceteria, Peppermint Lounge and also for The Museum of Modern Art. He joined the band Arsenal around this time. Eventually the band relocated to San Francisco, touring the west coast extensively, changing its name to Sleeping Dogs and then finally Brain Rust. In the early 1990s, King attended the San Francisco Art Institute. Since that time, David has made short films, continued with his logo design for bands and record labels and has published a number of photo books. He still was making stencils until the time of his death.