Michael David American, b. 1957

Abstract painter Michael David is best known for his use of encaustic, a technique that incorporates heated beeswax and pigment, as well as mirrored glass. Considered an inheritor of Abstract Expressionism, David’s abstract work primarily centers on the use of a densely layered surface to facilitate a direct and immediate spiritual experience. He often incorporates religious iconography and symbolism, art historical themes such as the nude, and contemporary politics into his paintings, resulting in a critical dialogue between the layered abstraction of the surface and the integrated representational imagery. Alongside his work on canvas, David has developed a body of studio photography that recreates paintings by Caravaggio, Manet, and Mantegna, among others, in works that confront racism, homophobia, and sexism.

In his ongoing body of work, David constructs his abstract paintings using hundreds of pounds of broken mirror. Through this process, he achieves a complex yet seamless synthesis of his oeuvre, spanning the last four decades. By pushing the boundaries between painting and sculpture, David develops complex narratives, as evidenced in his seminal symbol paintings that incorporated icons such as the Cross, the Swastika, and the Five Point Jewish Star, as well as in his more recent masterworks such as The Inevitable and The End of the World As We Know It.

A Guggenheim Fellow, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Awardee, and a Yaddo and Edward Albee Fellow, Michael David has been exhibiting internationally since 1981, first with the historical Sidney Janis and then with M. Knoedler & Co. Exhibiting widely throughout the United States for forty years, he has been the subject of much historical and curatorial acclaim. His recent solo show “The Mirror Stage” was held at Johnson Lowe Gallery in Atlanta, Georgia in 2022.

David’s work is included in many prominent private collections, and permanent public collections include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; the Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; the Houston Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, TX; the Denver Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA; the Margulies Collection, Miami, FL; and the Edward Albee Foundation, Montauk NY. David was the subject of a one-person exhibition at the Aspen Museum of Art in Aspen, CO.