David Datuna

Datuna: Portrait of America, a documentary about the life of Contemporary Artist David Datuna, recently won Best Film at the 23rd Raindance Film Festival in London. Directed by Brian Bayerl, the film was screened at the festival alongside 90 feature length films and 200 shorts, which were represented by 48 countries around the world.

Best known for his unique mixed media wall sculptures that incorporate optics and popular imagery, David Datuna is an American Georgian-born artist (B. 1974 in Tbilisi) that lives and works in New York City. His dynamic works immediately draw focus on a complex network of frames and lenses that are layered on top of iconic images integrated with pop culture and history. Datuna explores questions surrounding identity, perception, society and culture. His use of positive and negative lenses both amplifies and minimizes coordinating text and imagery that live behind the web of lenses. Datuna’s pieces work in two ways; as a whole and separately into detailed segments which open doors to new avenues of investigation on the viewer’s behalf. Datuna’s use of the collage and found object traditions anchors his work in a sea of celebrated artists. His American flags pay tribute to Jasper Johns, but his innovative series looks to the feature of art and culture.

The artist’s 2014 piece titled Viewpoint of Billions: Portrait of America, has revolutionized a new generation of artwork. The well-received piece exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. welcomed record attendance. The impressive exhibition, with the use of Google Glass, invited visitors to interact with images strategically placed throughout the flag. Their reactions were captured and streamed live worldwide via the web. The production of this innovative artwork, along with views into Datuna’s personal life that have majorly shaped who he is as an artist and his incredible artistic process is documented in the film. Datuna: Portrait of America is scheduled for a 2016 public release to audiences worldwide.

Congratulations to David Datuna, Brian Bayerl, Michael Hutter and those involved in the production of Datuna: Portrait of America!

To watch the trailer of Datuna: Portrait of America, click here.