Gauntlet Gallery
What is D*Face’s piece called “Going Nowhere Fast (Blue)”
Summary
A leopard-coated blonde rides shotgun beside her driver in a speeding car, motion lines streaking across an electric-blue ground in Lichtenstein-style Ben-Day comic flatness; the catch is that her handsome companion at the wheel is a green-fleshed, decomposing skull in a suit and red tie. "Going Nowhere Fast (Blue)" is a definitive example of D*Face's defaced-romance comic appropriations, turning a doomed-lovers panel into a memento mori about glamour racing toward death.
Why It Matters
The print distills D*Face's central move: hijacking the visual language of mid-century romance comics and advertising, then corrupting it with mortality. By pairing an idealized pop heroine with a literal corpse behind the wheel, he satirizes the consumerist fantasy of beauty, status and the open road while making the skull motif that runs through his work do real narrative work. It sits squarely in the lineage of Lichtenstein and Pop appropriation but pushes the irony toward the morbid, which is the territory that built D*Face's reputation as a British street-pop provocateur and StolenSpace co-founder.
Collector Perspective
An edition of 55 is small for a D*Face screen print, which keeps supply genuinely tight when examples surface. The appeal here is strong: it combines his two most collectible registers, the comic-couple appropriation and the skull/mortality motif, in a single bold image with high wall presence, which tends to outperform his quieter typographic or single-motif prints. The blue colorway is one of a small run of variants, so collectors chasing a specific palette have limited options. It is an established secondary-market name rather than a blue-chip one, so expect steady rather than explosive demand, with condition, signature and numbering driving the spread.
Historical Context
Dated 2011, the work falls in D*Face's Pop Provocation era, when he was most directly mining 1950s-60s romance-comic panels in the manner of Roy Lichtenstein, complete with Ben-Day-style dots, hard outlines and speech-free melodrama. The speeding-car-and-glamorous-couple composition references that comic-book vocabulary directly, while the rotting driver inverts its escapist optimism. The title's "going nowhere fast" plays on the futility beneath consumer aspiration, a recurring theme across his appropriated-advertising and celebrity work of the period.
FAQ
What does this print depict?
A glamorous blonde woman in a leopard-print coat rides in a speeding car beside a male driver, rendered in flat comic-book color with streaking motion lines on a blue background. The twist is that the driver is a decomposing green corpse with a skull-like face, wearing a suit and red tie.
How large is the edition?
The edition size is 55. This is the blue colorway variant of Going Nowhere Fast.
What medium is it?
It is a screen print, produced in 2011.
Is it signed and numbered?
D*Face limited-edition prints are typically hand-signed and numbered by the artist, often on the front or verso. Signature and numbering should be confirmed against the specific example, as it is unconfirmed here.
Who is D*Face?
D*Face is the British street and pop artist Dean Stockton (b. 1978, London), known for defacing comic-book romance, advertising and celebrity imagery with skulls, winged eyes (his D*Dog motif) and doomed lovers. He co-founded the StolenSpace gallery and satirizes consumerism, power and fame.
Related Works
About the Artist
D*Face is the working name of Dean Stockton (b. 1978, London), a leading figure in British street art. He came up pasting stickers and posters across London in the early 2000s, then built a pop-fuelled visual language that defaces comic-book romance, advertising and celebrity iconography. Recurring motifs include his winged-eyed D*Dog, grinning skulls and doomed comic-strip lovers. His practice spans screenprints, hand-painted multiples, sculpture and large-scale murals worldwide, and he co-founded the StolenSpace gallery in London. His work satirises consumerism, power and our collective obsession with fame.
Collecting D*Face at Gauntlet Gallery
Where can I buy authentic D*Face prints?
Gauntlet Gallery offers an extensive, authenticated inventory of D*Face prints and contemporary editions, with new drops added regularly. Browse the current collection at gauntlet.gallery.
How does Gauntlet Gallery ensure authenticity?
Gauntlet Gallery is built on curation, authenticity and transparency — every work is vetted and its provenance, edition details and condition are disclosed up front.
Does Gauntlet Gallery add new D*Face prints?
Yes. New drops are released regularly across D*Face and other leading artists; see gauntlet.gallery for the latest inventory.