Darren Cullen (graffiti artist)
Darren Cullen | |
|---|---|
 Darren Cullen in hes London art studio | |
| Born | Darren James Cullen 26 October 1973 |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Graffiti, Public art, Stenciling |
| Website | http://www.graffitikings.co.uk/darren-cullen |
Darren Cullen is a world renowned London graffiti artist who is commonly known by the name SER. Cullen emerged as an artist from the birth of the British graffiti art scene in the early 1980s & is highly regarded as one of the forefathers for British graffiti in London[1][2]
Overview
Cullen is the founder of the world's first professional graffiti art company "Graffiti Kings" based in 1 Leake Street S1, London SE17NN, England.[1] Cullen began his career in 1983 and turned professional in 1996.[3] Over the past decade and a half, his company has created graffiti art for organisations such as Sony, Red Bull, Google, Microsoft, Dolce & Gabbana, Warner Bros., Adidas and the Royal Shakespeare Company and many more.[3] Their graffiti work has also appeared on television shows including The X Factor and The Apprentice.[4] In the past Darren Cullen has worked alongside many different international graffiti talents, including Ben Eine, Banksy and D*Face.[5]
Community work
In addition to his commercial activities, Cullen is an advocate for viewing graffiti as a form of fine art and moving the graffiti art movement away from its past connections to vandalism.[6] Cullen has admitted to engaging in vandalism and tagging while growing up in Croydon, but after later turning his work into a legal, commercial activity, Cullen was commissioned by Merton Council to run graffiti workshops for young people. The workshops aimed to reduce vandalism and to foster an understanding of graffiti art and its positive uses among at-risk youth in Croydon by offering opportunities for graffiti artists to practise their art legally on designated walls. The youth work worked so well that Darren was employed by various railway comapnys like Railtrack, Thameslink and Connex to help reduce vandalism on the railway. The youth work was a massive success and was officially endorsed by the British Government body the DETR. To date Cullen is the only graffiti artist to be approved by the British Government.[7]
London Olympics 2012
In 2012 Cullen was approached by Team GB to produce artwork for the Olympic and Paralympic village for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Darren could not fulfill the work due to time needed to complete a massive project like this. The Olympic team wanted Cullen to paint a graffiti mural in every room at the Olympic and Paralympic village, they wanted the work completed in 4 months but due to there being 100s of rooms it would have taken cullen over a year to complete. Cullen was then was arrested by the British Transport Police along with several others on suspicion of incitement to commit criminal damage. Cullen asserted that the arrest was solely in connection with a graffiti-related website which he had helped to set up a number of year previously for a client. He was bailed and banned from possessing paint, going within one mile of any Olympic venue and from using trains, trams and the Underground for a period of six months. The police stated that the arrests were to protect the "integrity" of the London Olympics. Luckily for Darren that when he was arrested every news team from around the world was in London to report on the Olympics. The news teams had heard of what had happened to Cullen and asked him for interviews. The news on Cullen went viral in days around the world due to the observed silliness of hes arrest. The world could not understand why Cullen was banned from the Olympics for building a website?. During the Olympics Darren was contacted by the Olympics team LOCOG as they wanted to commission Cullen to design the stage sets needed for the Paralympic opening ceremony. Cullen had to ask the police for their permission as he was banned from the Olympics. The police gave him permission and Darren went on to finally working for the Olympics. In October 2013 the case came to an end and Darren was not charged for any wrongdoings.[8][9]
References
- ^ a b Template:Cite article
- ^ "UK AUTHORITIES GOING AFTER REAL THREAT TO 2012 OLYMPICS: STREET ARTISTS". Animal New York. 21 July 2012.
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- ^ "London 2012: Outrage over artist banned from Olympics". BBC News. 20 July 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
- ^ Esther Addley; Sandra Laville; Ben Quinn (18 July 2012). "Graffiti artist who worked for Adidas is banned from Olympic Games venues". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 July 2012.