It's really strange when people that are younger than you die. I had just recently discovered New York artist Dash Snow.
His dishevelled rock-star image made him a legend in the down town New York art scene. His controversial work, influenced by director/photographer Larry Clark, dealt with provocative issues such as drug-use, sex, excess and destruction. He expressed this through collages and polaroids.
Snow gained notoriety in Britain in 2006 when the Saatchi gallery exibited some of his work. It was a collage entitled 'Fuck the Police' and contained images of police injustices, obtained from newspaper cuttings. It was also at this time that he fled a Piccadilly hotel to escape arrest for creating a 'hamster nest' from shredded phone books and hotel curtains and blankets. He later exhibited the nest installation with fellow artist Dan Colen in New York.
Dash Snow died July 13, aged 27, of a drug overdose.