David Choe valuation
Los Angeles graffiti painter whose Facebook office murals, paid for in stock, became a story of their own.
David Choe was born in Los Angeles in 1976 to Korean immigrant parents and came up through graffiti, comics and illustration before turning to large, dense, expressionistic paintings.
What a work by David Choe is worth
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation is free, made online from the photographs you send, and it commits you to nothing. We act for sellers across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Bio
David Choe was born in Los Angeles in 1976 to Korean immigrant parents and came up through graffiti, comics and illustration before turning to large, dense, expressionistic paintings. In 2005 he painted the murals in Facebook's first offices and took shares in the company instead of a cash fee — a decision that made headlines when Facebook went public. He has also worked in film and television, including as an actor in the Netflix series Beef.
Paintings and works on paper lead, with a large body of prints and editions, often released in small, fast-selling drops. Because the output is prolific and varied, title, date, medium and dimensions matched to documentation are what identify a unique work. For editions, check the edition size, any hand-embellishment and the signature. Works on paper need the usual care with light, and mixed-media pieces with collage or thick paint should be checked for lifting and cracking.
Slow Jams, Santa Rosa and Vice
Choe grew up in Koreatown in Los Angeles and briefly attended the California College of the Arts. In 1996 he self-published a graphic novel, Slow Jams, and a Xeric grant in 1999 paid for an expanded edition. Sean Parker asked him to paint the murals in Facebook's first Silicon Valley office in 2005, and Mark Zuckerberg commissioned tamer ones in 2007.
After shows in San Jose and San Francisco he was given a solo exhibition at the Santa Rosa Museum of Contemporary Art in 2005, and his first New York solo show, Gardeners of Eden, was at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in 2007. With Harry Kim he made the documentary Dirty Hands: The Art and Crimes of David Choe in 2008 and the Vice web series Thumbs Up!
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.
