DAVID MATTHEW KING

David Matthew King was born in San Pedro, California in 1981 and lives and works in Baltimore. He studied English literature before developing a practice that moves between painting, works on paper, text and installation.

King often begins with a simple mark, spill or smear that interrupts the untouched surface. The painting develops through his attempts to correct or extend that first gesture. Elementary shapes and carefully mixed colours become a personal form of storytelling, carrying contradictory feelings such as love and anger, isolation and hope. His interest in language comes from its flexibility and its frequent inability to express exactly what is meant. Painting allows him to construct a different vocabulary through colour, movement and form.

Circle Culture first presented King through PRIMA NOVA in 2021 and has included his work in subsequent exhibitions in Berlin and Hamburg.