Low profile inhabitant #1, 2023
From early on, he understood art as a survival tool, leading to a multifaceted practice that constantly reexamines his symbolic universe. Painting, sculpture, installation and drawing form the foundation of a visual language inhabited by four recurring elements: the mirror, the hair, the mask and the costume. These symbols evoke memory, identity, protection, and desire.
Grip Face (born 1989, Palma de Mallorca, Spain) is the alter ego of David Oliver. He works across media — painting, sculpture, installation, public murals, works on paper — drawing from street culture, graphic design, anime, punk, and urban visual environments.
Grip Face started drawing as a child. He was attracted to the graffiti, street signs and architecture of his neighbourhood and soon began experimenting with different art forms. By his early teens he was customising friends’ skateboard grips: the nickname “Grip Face” became his pseudonym. Recurring motifs in his work include masks, hair, costume, the mirror, blending figuration and abstraction. His practice often reimagines public spaces, intervenes in abandoned architectural or urban structures, and uses bold colour, texture, and form to address identity, anonymity, community, and the unseen dynamics of everyday life.
Grip Face started drawing as a child. He was attracted to the graffiti, street signs and architecture of his neighbourhood and soon began experimenting with different art forms. By his early teens he was customising friends’ skateboard grips: the nickname “Grip Face” became his pseudonym. Recurring motifs in his work include masks, hair, costume, the mirror, blending figuration and abstraction. His practice often reimagines public spaces, intervenes in abandoned architectural or urban structures, and uses bold colour, texture, and form to address identity, anonymity, community, and the unseen dynamics of everyday life.
Grip Face has hosted solo shows in Madrid, Mallorca and Bilbao, among others, and has participated in group exhibitions at venues including the Ses Voltes Centre for Contemporary Art, Hyvinkää Art Museum, Finland and the Fundación Miró in Mallorca. Outdoors, his public space interventions can be viewed in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Naples and the Q21 Museums Quarter in Vienna.