James Marshall better known as Dalek, is an American art

American Art

American Art is the debut album of the band Weatherbox. It was released on May 8, 2007 on Doghouse Records. The album received critical acclaim from several sources including underground music distribution company Smartpunk, who lauded the band's style:...

ist and designer based in Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh, North Carolina

Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...

. Dalek has had two books published of his artwork, as well as being included in many other books and magazines. His artwork has appeared on a wide variety of mediums, including sneakers, sculptures and a Scion car.

Early Life and Education

Dalek was born James Marshall in New London, Connecticut

New London, Connecticut

New London is a seaport city and a port of entry on the northeast coast of the United States.It is located at the mouth of the Thames River in New London County, southeastern Connecticut....

. Because he grew up in a military family, he moved quite frequently and turned to graffiti, skateboarding and punk rock to help form his identity. He graduated in 1992 from Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University is a public university located in Richmond, Virginia. It comprises two campuses in the Downtown Richmond area, the product of a merger between the Richmond Professional Institute and the Medical College of Virginia in 1968...

 with a Bachelor of Science

Bachelor of Science

A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...

 in anthropology and sociology. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts

Bachelor of Fine Arts

In the United States and Canada, the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, usually abbreviated BFA, is the standard undergraduate degree for students seeking a professional education in the visual or performing arts. In some countries such a degree is called a Bachelor of Creative Arts or BCA...

 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1995. From 2001 to 2002, Dalek served as assistant to the influential Japanese art

Japanese art

Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient pottery, sculpture in wood and bronze, ink painting on silk and paper and more recently manga, cartoon, along with a myriad of other types of works of art...

ist Takashi Murakami

Takashi Murakami

is an internationally prolific contemporary Japanese artist. He works in fine arts media—such as painting and sculpture—as well as what is conventionally considered commercial media —fashion, merchandise, and animation— and is known for blurring the line between high and low art...

. The six-month assistantship proved to be a major turning point in Dalek's career: "I didn't have a real set direction for how I wanted to paint. I had seen a show of [Murakami's] that August at the Boston Museum

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...

, and when I saw those painting close up, I realized that was the end product I wanted to see my ideas come out in. I realized I needed that sort of apprenticeship."

James has two sons, James and Shannon with Sarah Sheridan.

Space Monkey

Dalek's most recognizable work is his Space Monkey character. According to Dalek, the Space Monkey, which looks like some strange twisted mouse, is his vision of a human being. In his art, he has used the Space Monkey as a recognizable tool for expressing his ideas. The Space Monkey character was a major focus of Dalek's artwork since he first created the creature in 1995. With his new pseudonym, he merged street art, cartoons, Japanese pop art and the energy of the punk scene which he associated himself with. In 2007, Marshall reached a major turning point in his career. In a show at Jonathan Levine Gallery he used his real name and created a series of paintings that were complex and layered. The Space Monkey was now either missing entirely or only present in a fragmented form.

Primary sources

• Dalek. Sonic Order Of Happiness. Brooklyn: powerHouse, 2005. ISBN 1-57687-247-5
• Marshall, James and Roger Gastman. Dalek Nickel-Plated Angels. Berkeley: Gingko Press, 2003. ISBN 978-1584231431