Unlike writers who perfect slick tags composed of incompressible interlocked letters or bold fill-ins, Neck Face draws monsters, slashers and victims, or writes provocatively self-deprecating phrases in the same shaky hand. He scrawls his tag with child-like insolence and an endearing lack of overt ego. Strangely, his sloppy topography has helped make his the most recognisable signature in cities where graffiti writers' tags are often indistinguishable from well-crafted brands. His block letters are a refreshing reminder that graffiti is not just another specialised subculture of self-absorbed savvy kids. It is the act of writing on public property. It is interesting and meaningful because of everything that act implies.

From one of the very few graffiti writers whose work is equally interesting inside galleries as outdoors on the street, Neckface's images evoke his Mexican roots, the macabre cartoons of Marcel Dzama or John Pytypchuk's sad, scrappy sculptural collages. Populated in varying instances by salacious space creatures, decadent aristocratic vixens and Maoist soldiers, Dzama's images both illustrate and send up the incoherence of fantasies about power. Something similar happens among Neckface's signature protagonists, like the beasts gobbling little bodies or the masked men accompanied by the phrase tailor-made for London; "Neckface the Ripper".

At age 20, after a stint at New York's prestigious Pratt Institute, Neckface had his first solo gallery exhibition at Los Angeles' New Image Art Gallery in 2004. After shows at San Francisco's The Luggage Store and other galleries on both coasts, Satan's Bride, a monograph of his street work, was published by fellow street artist Kaws. In New York's Paper magazine, critic and curator Carlo McCormick dubbed Neckface "the most prolific and idiosyncratic street artist working." Shortly afterwards, The Village Voice named him "Best anonymous sex symbol" in 2004. But most impressively, the The New Yorker featured a profile of Neck Face in its Talk of the Town section, thereby validating his position as the city's unofficial artist in (or on your) residence.

Neck Face is currently exhibiting work at the dpmhi gallery (till 10/06).

Additional Info
Neck Face image archive
More images
Neck Face on the streets of London
San Francisco Bay Guardian review (05/02/05)
San Francisco Bay Guardian interview (05/02/05)
Pop Culture article (17/11/03)
NY Arts on street art (07/2005)
The Morning News roundtable on street art (23/03/05)

This interview was conducted in person at dpmhi gallery on 12/05/05.

Ana Finel Honigman: You are so prolific in New York that you have literally changed parts of the city. I would notice your work every day in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. How does it feel to affect someone's daily life that way?

Neck Face: I never really think about where I am when I'm tagging. People will tell me they've seen a piece at a particular location, but I rarely notice where I am when I'm writing. I'll just be wandering around, doing them wherever I go. It's only later, when someone mentions it to me that I'll realise that's where I was when I did that.

AFH: When you see graffiti you admire, do you like it for the aesthetics or for the performative element, the fact that someone made it and you understand how difficult or daring it is to do?

NF: If I see that someone did something crazy, like on the side of a busy street or something, regardless of what it is, I think "that must have been tough to pull off." I imagine what they must have been feeling as they were trying to hurry up and finish before the next car came.

AFH: Do you think work by graffiti writers in a "safe space" like a gallery or store is still graffiti?

NF: It is a different buzz. When you're out there writing around, writing on stuff, it is more of a rush. It is mellow in a space where you have been invited to work.

AFH: What do you think when you see graffiti you admire?

NF: They probably did it in five minutes. I usually just think about how they got there, how long it took them and what they were probably feeling while they were doing it.

AFH: Where did your tag originate?

NF: I started doing it in Sacramento, California, in the beginning of my junior year of high school. My older brothers did graffiti. So, I'd been around it growing up and I always wanted to do it. When I finally decided I was going to do it, I knew I needed a unique name because there are a lot of people who pick their graffiti name and then discover someone has the identical name in the next town over.

AFH: Neck Face is unique.

NF: Its just completely impossible. You can have a face on your neck but you can't have a neck on your face, because then it's a neck.

AFH: That's true. Are your brothers still writers?

NF: Not really. Occasionally they will get an itch but mostly not.

AFH: Did they do more traditional images and typography?

NF: Theirs was mostly traditional graffiti style.

AFH: So, who inspired you?

NF: I don't know.

AFH: Your work reminds me more of Twist, than the kind of Old School New York style tradition that has clearly influenced most new taggers.

NF: Twist was one of the first graffiti writers I knew about going into San Francisco from Sacramento. Before I even knew his name, I was looking for the guy who did the screws. I just like people who are out there and get a lot of stuff up. I like whoever is bombing, damaging, stuff. It doesn't really matter to me if it's ugly or it's nice.

AFH: There seems to be a renewed interest in '80s style bubble letter typography. Why do you think that's of interest again?

NF: I don't know why it is popular again but I like it. I like it all. I like Seen's stuff and other stuff from that era.

AFH: Are there contemporary artists whose work you like or admire?

NF: Nor really. I try to stay in my own little cave and not look at a lot of stuff. A lot of people will tell me that my work reminds them of someone else's.

AFH: What do you think when people make those comparisons?

NF: I've been doing my stuff and if later on I see something that people might compare with mine then I can understand the connection but it is always unintentional.

AFH: You work independently, don't you?

NF: I am not really connected to a crew.

AFH: Why is that?

NF: I hang out with a lot of them but I feel like my stuff would be branded if I linked with anyone.

AFH: Branded?

NF: It is like having a brand. It is like putting up a sponsor. I want it to be known that I am a one-man show.

Ana Finel Honigman is a senior writer at KultureFlash and is a frequent contributor to such publications as Artnet, ArtReview, Modern Painters and Tema Celeste. She is also a PhD candidate in the history of art at Oxford University.

Image © Neck Face courtesy dpmhi gallery