Dave King MRSS

curriculum vitae & statement

ART EDUCATION:      1968-70 Slade School of Fine Art, University College London,     1965-68 Dept. of Fine Art, Leeds College of Art,  1962-65 Sutton Coldfield School of Art 

ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS include:

2020     DAVE KING: THEN & NOW, The Shippon Gallery

2006     CURIOUS OTHERS, ShillamSmith3, London W1

1994     FLOATING WORLDS, South Hill Park, Bracknell

1993     Angela Flowers (Ireland) Inc., Rosscarbery, Co. Cork

1991     Ben Shahn Galleries, William Paterson College, New Jersey

1982     City Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke on Trent

1978 &1980     Angela Flowers Gallery, London

GROUP EXHIBITIONS include:

2022  FOUND (with Jacy Wall & Jenny Graham), The Shippon Gallery

2021  WELLS ART CONTEMPORARY, Wells Cathedral installation

            Royal West of England Academy 168th OPEN Exhibition, Bristol

2019  A GOOD AGE, Devon Guild of Craftsmen, Bovey Tracey

2016 & 2017 RWS CONTEMPORARY WATERCOLOUR, Bankside Gallery

2014  LOST, Salisbury Arts Centre,     RWS CONTEMPORARYWATERCOLOUR, Bankside Gallery

2012  EQUALITY & ENDEAVOUR, Thelma Hulbert Gallery, Honiton

2000 – 2012 SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL, Flowers East Gallery, London

1999/2001   SCULPTURE AT GOODWOOD Sculpture Park, W. Sussex

1998  XXth CENTURY SCULPTURE, Millfield Schl. Somerset,(Jun-Sept)

             BRITISH FIGURATIVE ART Part 2:SCULPTURE, Flowers East,

1997  LEWES SCULPTURE TRAIL, Lewes, Sussex ( Aug - Oct )

1996  COVENTRY/PORTO ART EXCHANGE, Universidade do Porto

            BRITISH ABSTRACT ART - part 3, Works on paper, Flowers East

1995   BRITISH ABSTRACT ART - pt.2, SCULPTURE, Flowers East Gall.

1990  HAND,BODY,HOUSE, Ben Shahn Gall., William Paterson College, New Jersey,

 LARGE SCALE OUTDOOR EXHIBITIONS/COMMISSIONS:

1993/2003  CIRCLE OF UNDERSTANDING, Angela Flowers (Ireland) Inc.

1992       SHADOWPLAY - Steel and bronze sculpture commission, East India Dock, London E14

1991       ART OUTSIDE - Millwall Inner Dock , London

1988       SCULPTORS WORKING - Socrates Sculpture Park, New York

1986       ARTSITE - Sculpture in the City, work on-site for Victoria Pk, Bath

1985       VIVACE - outdoor sculpture project, St Louis, Missouri, USA

RESIDENCIES :

1974 The Gardner Arts Centre, Sussex University, 1984 Sculpture Space, Utica, New York, 1988 Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, New York City, 1991 William Paterson College, Wayne, New Jersey, 1996 British School at Rome, 1996 Staunton Country Park, Hampshire

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS:

After several years as visiting lecturer at UK art schools and colleges, in 1981 I became full-time Principal Lecturer, Head of Sculpture at West Surrey College of Art & Design (Farnham) and subsequently at Middlesex Polytechnic until leaving in 1991. I was external assessor for sculpture at the Royal College of Art from 2001 to 2003.

CONSULTANCIES:

2013-2016  Member of Fabric Advisory Committee, Exeter Cathedral

2002-2006  External assessor, BA Hons. Sculpture, Norwich School of Art

2001-2003  External assessor for sculpture, Royal College of Art, London

1999-2003  External assessor,   Birmingham Institute of Art & Design

1987  Elected chair of sculpture panel - The British School at Rome

1986  Fine Art Board of the Council for National Academic Awards

1985-1988  External Assessor, BA(Hons) Sculpture, Chelsea School of Art

COLLECTIONS:  British Council, Arts Council England, Leicestershire Education Authority, Wakefield Museums Service, Contemporary Arts Society, Victoria and Albert Museum, York City Art Gallery, William Paterson University.  Also works in public and private collections in England, France, Ireland, Japan, Sweden, USA, Canada and Lithuania

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I work principally on sculpture and drawings in my Devon studio. Ideas, essentially creative metaphors developed over many years, have expanded into a lexicon of imagery. Variations of the longhouse, villas and palaces are seen as dwelling places of the mind. They become a form of Bluebeard’s Castle, out of and around which accretions and interactions play. The sculptures grew from influences ranging from Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space to the Chinese Circus by way of Schubert’s Winterreise, Courbet’s perception of Parisian roofs, Jungian psychology and the experience of a successful kidney transplant.

I’ve enjoyed opportunities to make larger works for public spaces. The sculpture Shadowplay, for a redevelopment at East India Docks, memorialised the site’s working past.  Shorter-lived pieces were proposed or built for diverse sites such as Millwall Inner Docks, Socrates Sculpture Park, New York (moved to William Paterson University, New Jersey), a rural setting in West Cork and a traffic roundabout in St Louis.

Cass Sculpture Foundation website:

“The house motif, and rooftops in particular, recur frequently in his mixed media sculptures. Architectural elements are used for the messages or stories they can convey. Rooftops may support a dancing figure, a boulder or plates and bowls – simple domestic appliances that reflect information about the interior – but it is the other strange forms that test the viewer. Wood, found objects and metals in all manner of construction techniques give a rich flavour to King’s work. Some are painted, others exist in their raw state, but all are finished with skill and precision.”