David King was born in Dublin in 1972 and studied at the National College of Art & Design, graduating with a BA in Fine Art in 1997 and later in 2000 with a MA in Fine Art Practice & Theory. In 2017 he achieved an MA in Professional Education from NCAD. King’s practice incorporates multiple approaches, drawing from art history and contemporary perspectives. His work assimilates drawing and painting, often on a large scale, as well as sculpture, which utilise bone, stainless steel or corten steel and wood. For King the process and material correspond to the concept and the subject he is examining. Lately King has returned to the landscape, this time literally living the experience by painting en plein air. King initially came to prominence for a series of emotionally intense painterly seascapes; the work questioned our relationship with memory, loss and the notions of figurative painting in the age of mechanical reproduction. One of the paintings from this series was awarded the inaugural prestigious Hennessy Craig Award at the Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition in 2002. His ever-evolving work is deeply embedded in the history of art. King has exhibited extensively throughout Ireland and abroad. In 2013 his Sapling series - Bone Lines was chosen to represent Ireland at the Prince Pierre Contemporary Awards in Monaco where he was a finalist. In 2016 one of King’s Black Earth works (a steel painted sculpture) was selected to represent Art of the State, an exhibition in Dublin Castle highlighting twenty diverse artists in the Irish State Art Collection. His work can be found in many public and corporate collections including AIB, Bank of Ireland, Office of Public Works, Butler Gallery Collection, Kilkenny, ESB, First Active/Ulster Bank and AXA.
