David Shillinglaw British, b. 1982
David’s work ranges from studio to street art: from small handmade book drawings and paintings on canvas to large scale wall murals. He is also a skilled sculptor and ceramicist. David referenced among his influences aspects of international travel, culture, and food. He cites artists, authors, philosophers and musicians among his mentors. These range from El Greco to Simon Evans, William Burroughs to Richard Brautigan, and Miles Davis to Kurt Cobain. As such, he has applied his work to theatre set designs and album cover designs. His preference is to work in the primary colours of red, blue and yellow and bright colours.
One critic described him as ‘a mind adventurer, where the left half of the brain explores the right one. Unanswered, impulsive, instinctive and restless: he doesn’t paint or draw, he creates time. He is not afraid to humanise his art. He incorporates the perceptual concern of his journey as a man with his own sense of humour. The result is a powerful and fresh interpretation of everyday reality in which the works mirror the artist and his experience. His art has the appeal of a friendly, subtle, self-effacing folk inspired Pop that presents the ordinary while delighting the viewer by showing them that you have your best conversation with yourself.
David Shillinglaw aims to construct a visual world that celebrates and incorporates the ingredients of what it means to be human; constructing heavily layered and detailed descriptions while also reducing and simplifying ideas into abstractions that seek to describe the complexities and simplicities of the human condition.The work is a celebration of difference, and coexistence a global and local story telling the way we communicate to one another and to ourselves.