David Art Wales is an Australian entrepreneur and artist best known for creating satirical cult figure Guru Adrian. He has been involved in collaborations with artist Keith Haring and filmmaker Morgan Spurlock. Wales has been called "the father of the Noughties" in relation to his role as founder of Project Naughtie, a campaign to name the decade of 2000–2009 the "Naughties".
1980s
At the age of nineteen, Wales launched his first business, Nice Enterprises, described as "the world's first mail order flattery service." A year later, he co-published Fatplastiscene magazine, the first issue of which is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia. In 1986 Wales became a host of the ABC TV showEdge of the Wedge. During the 1980s he was a frequent contributor to Australian radio stationTriple Jay, providing commentary on pop-cultural issues, including a live report from Berlin as the Berlin Wall fell, and a comic strip featuring Guru Adrian for the station's fanzine, Alan.
1990s
Wales moved to New York to become a painter in 1989 and spent the 1990s showing at various Manhattan and Australian galleries, including Roslyn Oxley 9 and Sherman Galleries. During this time he also worked on content creation projects for MTV, Fox and Disney. Several companies, including Hanna Barbera, Fox Television, and MTV, have optioned Guru Adrian with a view to building a television show around the character; however, each project was eventually shelved. In 1998 Wales and Australian dancer Catherine Hourihan launched the Red Vixen Burlesque, a popular downtown New York attraction that is now seen as an early progenitor of the burlesque revival movement.
Naughties
In 1999 Wales initiated Project Naughtie, a grassroots campaign to name the 2000s decade the "Naughties". A December 2009 article referred to Wales as the "father of the Noughties". That same year, Wales became Cultural Forecaster for Toyota, tracking and predicting trends for the automaker's design division. In 2000 he launched Ministry of Culture, a research, strategy and content creation firm. In 2008, Wales and filmmaker Morgan Spurlock launched the website Cinelan, described by The Hollywood Reporter as a "film content publisher." More recently, Ministry of Culture has created a viral campaign claiming to resurrect an ancient Welsh temperance movement called Prudent Boozers.
