Internets Got Talent: 2014

Saturday, February 8, 2014

DALeast

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Breathtaking work of the secretive Chinese graffiti artist who travels the world tagging walls with his lifelike art

DALeast, who doesn't reveal his real name, lives in Cape Town but travels world tagging walls in different continents
His unusual works look 3D, as if they're made of metal shards, but are spray-painted, often in a hurry to avoid arrest
The Chinese-born artist has created works of art on walls and buildings in Miami, New York, London and S Africa

These huge paintings are the work of a secretive graffiti artist who travels the world tagging walls, often painting his quirky pieces in a hurry to avoid arrest.
Chinese-born DALeast lives in South Africa but spends six months of the year travelling and has tagged walls on nearly every continent.
His unusual paintings, which are sometimes hundreds of feet across, can look 3D and as if they are created out of thousands of tiny metal shards, but in fact they have been spray-painted onto a flat surface.

This mural of two big cats fighting was painted by secretive graffiti artist DALeast in Hanbury Street, near London's Brick Lane

Original style: This mural of two big cats fighting was painted by secretive Chinese-born graffiti artist DALeast in Hanbury Street, near London's Brick Lane

Astonishingly lifelike: This beautiful mural on a wall in the artist's home city Cape Town, South Africa, looks like slowed-down footage of the animal leaping

DALeast's works can be seen in Cape Town, Miami, New York and London's Brick Lane, as well as his native China.

The 29-year-old, who keeps his real name a secret, has been making art since he was three.

He said: 'I worked on everything when I was in China - painting, sculpture, installations, synchronising performance, and digital art, but I only started painting in public spaces in 2004.'

DALeast, who now lives with his wife, also an artist, in Cape Town, said he creates his pieces 'Spiritually, in the mind' before embarking on his painting trips.

Much of his work portrays wild animals hunting prey, often showing them in motion.

The nature of the artist's work has landed him in trouble before, most notably just before the 2008 Beijing Olympics when police raided a house he was staying in and arrested him and his graffiti crew.

Ambitious art: This enormous mural of a flying bird in Honolulu, Hawaii, is one of the dramatic works by DALeast on walls across the world

This breathtaking image of a dolphin leaping out of the water is painted on a building in Melun, in the south-eastern suburbs of Paris

He said: 'Life always give one troubles but my work gives me a lot of opportunity to face these troubles.

Any situation can arise when you work in the public space.

'But I hope I am creating illusions through my paintings that can be a switch for people's minds.'

He added: 'I like to express life-emotions and the environment, and use different artistic forms to speak. I prefer people staring at my work without saying any words - it means they are taking it in.'

This detailed mural showing a string of camels in the desert was painted on a wall of a parking lot in Miami, Florida, by Chinese-born graffiti artist DALEast

Astonishingly lifelike: This huge painting of a horse painted on some chipboard walls in Tin Town, South Africa, looks like a model from a fairground carousel

Imperious: This magnificent picture of a stag takes up most of a wall in Vienna, Austria - the graffiti artist has tagged walls on most continents

This mural of a lion looking at another beast is painted on the wall of a boutique in New York City, another destination for the globe-trotting DALeast

Change of subject: This mural in Miami, Florida, depicts a car splintering into tiny pieces as it crashes into a pipe on the outside of the building

Using buildings and walls as his canvases, the graffiti artist can paint pictures of astonishing breadth, as with this eagle mural in Cape Town, South Africa

Violent image: This work of art, entitled Eclipse Of The Halo, has been spray-painted on a wall in Miami, Florida, and shows the artist's DALeast tag

This enormous image of a whale by the graffiti artist takes up nearly the entire wall of a storage warehouse in Rochester, New York City

An undated image painted onto the end of a building in the artist's home town of Cape Town, South Africa, depicts a magnificent bird of prey

This image of a slithering serpent in Rochester, New York City, is one of the artist's longest works, painted underneath a bridge - below is the work in its entirety

This invigorating portrait of a big cat pouncing is painted on the wall of a house in Brick Lane in London's East End - another work showing animals splintering in two

In a departure from his normal style, the artist painted an astronaut planting a flat on the moon on the wall of this abandoned and overgrown building in Paris

Fast as a cheetah: A wild cat speeding away on what look like bicycle tyres has been painted onto the side of a building in Johannesburg, South Africa