David Matthew King (b. 1981, Southern California, USA).The studio is a place where all things that seem incongruous work to find their place in a larger order. Words, images, sounds, memories, conversations–everything is fair game, and if enough breathing room is given the connections between all things will begin to reveal themselves.
Some works in this collection continue my exploration in the language of color and movement and balance and momentum. Other works reveal another aspect of my process–one that lives mostly in the studio. Drawings, text, marks, works on paper– these are the things that populate my full-time work space. Many of these address more directly the themes that lie indirectly beneath the surface of my paintings: life, death, time, hope, failure, the problems of language, etc.
During several visits people have asked me how my time in London has shaped my work over these last few weeks. While architecture and interiors and weather have surely played a part, it has been the sounds of new voices and conversations with friends and other artists about love, life, death, the future, the past, our friends, families, peers, our economic problems, our social problems, etc. which have had the larger influence. Some of that influence is evident in these works. Misguided expectations, poor self-censorship, unhelpful directives, the desire to “do good” while having no universal understanding of what “doing good” means.
My time in the studio is a struggle with myself. What to say, what not to say, how to say it, how to show it, if to show it, how to hide it, how to transform it, how to resurrect it. What fills the studio is the carnage when the fight is over.
