American contemporary artist, David Hammons, was born in Springfield, Illinois, later moving to Los Angeles to study at the Chouinard Art Institute, as well as the Otis Art Institute. He currently lives and works in New York. Hammons eschews the spotlight and rebels against the conventions of the art world - he doesn't work in mediums or any formal or academic theory. Whether intentionally or not, he creates works so laden with spell-binding metaphor that they have become symbols for movements both in the art world as well as in the public domain.