Artist Bio

David Popa's work explores human origin and ​destiny using natural pigments similar to those in ​ancient cave paintings. He creates ephemeral art in ​remote locations, capturing its brief existence and ​interaction with nature. This approach invites ​viewers to reflect on the fleeting beauty of life.

David Popa is a leading land artist born and raised in NYC ​currently based in Finland. His interest in the arts ​spawned from a tight mentorship with his Father Albert ​Popa who was one of the first Graffiti Writers in NYC and ​later taught him traditional painting at a young age. ​However, what ultimately spurred Popa to pursue the arts ​full time were the adventures to be had outside the studio.

His interest in Street Art/Contemporary Muralism was the ​catalyst for the work he presently creates. His current body ​of work uses all natural pigments mixed only with the ​source water to create site-specific, ephemeral earth-​works captured through the eye of a drone. The large-scale ​work Popa paints are documented and portrayed through ​photography and short films. He is represented by MTART ​Agency, one of the worlds leading Art Agencies.

Popa’s work seeks to enter into the realm of anthropology as it relates to origin, ​nature and the destiny of human beings. By using natural pigments such as charcoal, ​earth pigments and chalk, he uses the same raw materials that would have been used ​in the earliest cave paintings 40,000 years ago. Early cave-painters are assumed to ​have gone to great lengths to not only collect and create these pigments, but also to ​create the works within the deep caves they reside in. Similarly, Popa seeks remote ​locations that appear otherworldly and ethereal. The result is work that appears to be ​a revealing of a latent life, waiting to be uncovered. This uncovering however, is ​incredibly brief, as some works have washed back into nature in a matter of a few ​days to a few months.

While the work is being created and documented, unsuspecting events often occur, ​from bird droppings that appear as dynamic brushstrokes, changing tides that reveal ​new rock layers, varying light that illuminate various surfaces and even oncoming ​storms that wash the piece away significantly, which reveal an altered yet beautiful ​remnant of what was created. It is this dynamic conversation with the ephemeral, ​natural world that infatuates Popa and beckons the viewer to consider the nature of ​our brief existence and relish in it’s profound mysteries and everyday miracles.