David Spiller attended art school in London during the 1960s, where he witnessed the raise of British Pop Art. Being younger than the Pop artists, Spiller developed a different approach and offered another comment on the new mass-market urban culture. While Pop Art was interested in finding striking images and presenting them boldly, Spiller's focus became urban graffiti, in an approach much closer to Dubuffet or Cy Twombly. Whilst the images derive from urban themes, Spiller's paintings are overlaid with different painterly techniques, creating rich and complex surfaces.
As a creator, Spiller is essentially lyrical – the images spill out with complete spontaneity. This lyricism is now an extremely rare quality in art, and the emotion it arouses is not simply enjoyment, but gratitude.