DENIAL
Daniel Joseph Bombardier (Born September 27, 1976) is a Canadian pop / mural artist whose aerosol and stencil art works critique contemporary politics, capitalism, consumerism and the human condition under the artists pseudonym and alter ego DENIAL. His artistic career began in 1999 during his involvement in the graffiti and street art movement. DENIAL’ studio is based in the border city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada next to Detroit, Michigan and spends much of the year traveling, painting murals, and exhibiting throughout North America and internationally. Having done solo shows in Detroit, New York, Chicago, Houston, Austin, New York, Toronto, Melbourne, Dubai, Miami and Vancouver. DENIAL is also very active in painting large scale murals and street art which often depict bold, bright, subversive pop inspired imagery intended to stun the viewer into contemplating the deeper meaning of its content and meaning.
In 1999, Daniel adopted the moniker 'DENIAL' as a means of poking fun at advertising, politics and media messages that contemporary society is often 'in denial' about. Since then he has maintained an ongoing global street-campaign of over 500, 000 stickers, placards and murals, using the alpha-numeric characters 'D3N!@L'. Intended as a conceptual means of marketing absurdism, DENIAL also challenges traditional notions of graffiti and public art through his dynamic and often satirical visual subversions. A self-described subversive punk pop artist, DENIAL’ works challenge the comfortably numb consumer masses by holding up a mirror up to the viewer using comedic artistic expression, wit and provoking imagery in a unique, unforgettable aesthetic.
In 2012 Daniel started 'Free 4 All Walls' which is the largest public art project of its kind in South West Ontario. Bringing artists from around the world to beautify and re-invigorate public walls around downtown Windsor, the government funded program has been a huge success in supporting the local community and promoting the value of street-art in contemporary society. The roster of invited artists who have painted murals include:Nychos (Austria) Bask (USA) Omen (Canada) Ben Frost (Australia) Nosego (USA) Persue (USA) Rime (USA) Above (USA) Elicser (Canada) High 5 (Canada) Nekoes (USA) Kwest (Canada) Earthcrusher (Canada) Czr Prz (USA) Anthony Lister (Australia) JUSTONE (Dubai) Deadboy (Canada) XRAY (Canada) and many more.
The now self-funded project is ongoing into 2023 as the same brand. Free For All Walls. Since its inception in 2008 DENIAL has been heavily involved with the art print giants www.1xrun.com, one of the world’s biggest contemporary art print producers and promoters in the world. Having created upwards of 150 original releases of his original works with 1xRun as print and limited editions, DENIAL is the top selling artist to this day, out of 1800 artists!
In 2017 DENIAL sued Mercedes Benz alongside Jeff Soto Maxx Gramajo and James Lewis for stealing their art works and using them in online advertising. Mercedes Benz in turn countersued the four in Federal court claiming that public works of art are simply public domain and free for use even by corporations in advertisements. This lawsuit is especially important as it would essentially set a precedence and strip artists in north America of their right to their works simply for being painted in public and be deemed classified as architecture. The lawsuit was settled out of court in May of 2020.
