3D

Robert Del Naja: Born 1966
Robert Del Naja is an artist who works across many media, although not always under the same name. His graffiti art background has expanded to encompass painting and computer generated imagery. But he is perhaps best known as '3D', a member of the deeply influential group Massive Attack. Whether audio or visual, all of Del Naja's output expresses the alienation within contemporary society.
As a member of the British group Massive Attack (using the pseudonym '3D'), Robert Del Naja has made some of the most innovative and influential dance music of the last decade, including the seminal 1991 album Blue Lines, which regularly heads critics' 'best album' lists and is widely credited with revitalizing British dance music.

Massive Attack were formed in the city of Bristol, the melting pot in which much of the UK's strongest recent music has originated, such as that of Portishead, Reprazent, and Tricky (a former member of Massive Attack). The band's richly layered music is a dark and often disturbing evocation of urban life. At times the group's work has hit too close to home - during the Gulf War they were forced, somewhat hysterically, to drop the word 'Attack' from their name, briefly being known simply as Massive.

Massive Attack began as an offshoot of the Bristol collective The Wild Bunch: a confluence of hip-hop DJs, sound-system operators and graffiti artists partly inspired by, and not dissimilar to, the late 70s New York hip-hop scene that spawned Jean-Michel Basquiat. A key member of this latter-day grouping, Robert Del Naja was a young spray-can artist before becoming a rapper, musician and producer. His art was featured in an 80s television documentary and in an exhibition of graffiti art at Bristol's Arnolfini Gallery (in which Del Naja sprayed directly onto the gallery walls, and the nascent Wild Bunch recorded a performance for the gallery's archives.) Indeed, Massive Attack was formed following a visit to London by the American Transatlantic Graffiti Foundation, who were over to take part in a multimedia exhibition. This 'multimedia' aspect of Massive Attack is often forgotten by the music press, but it is at the root of the group's formation; their original conceptual blueprint was to 'create music around art'.

Besides being a member of a best-selling and critically acclaimed musical outfit, Del Naja has been painting for ten years, and his work has featured in magazines and on record sleeves - both by Massive Attack and others. Like the group's third album Mezzanine, his recent artwork is informed by the discomfort and alienation he has experienced while touring. A few works reference Del Naja's graffiti past, some evoke perpetual motifs of urban life - such as plugholes and heating coils - while others feature mutated versions of Eurochild, the iconic and smoothly rounded figure that adorned the album Protection.

Although he has had several exhibitions, Del Naja has resisted selling his art commercially, preferring to 'donate' his work to friends and collaborators. For eyestorm, however, Del Naja has produced a limited-edition hardback book showcasing some of the works he has produced over the last five years, including new and never-before-seen pieces. Only 50 copies of Fitting In will be available, each signed by the artist.