David Wightman (born in

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

1980) is an English painter known for his abstract and

landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...

acrylic Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...

paintings using collaged

wallpaper Wallpaper is a material used in interior decoration to decorate the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" (so t ...

. He graduated with an MA in Painting from the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

in 2003. He lives and works in London. In 2003, after being nominated for the

Lexmark Lexmark International, Inc. is a privately held American company that manufactures laser printers and imaging products. The company is headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky. Since 2016 it has been jointly owned by a consortium of three multination ...

European Art Prize, (and while still studying at the

Meredith Etherington-Smith Meredith Etherington-Smith (née Dups, 1946 – 25 January 2020) was a British fashion and art journalist and biographer. She was born in Wales in 1946, and grew up in Kent. She attended the Royal College of Art. Her career as a journalist bega ...

, former editor of

Art Review ''ArtReview'' is an international contemporary art magazine based in London, founded in 1948. Its sister publication, ''ArtReview Asia'', was established in 2013. History Launched as a fortnightly broadsheet in February 1949 by a retired country ...

, said of his short-listed piece: "David Wightman frames his picture perfect Swiss postcard in the cool collateral of a

Ben Nicholson Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, Order of Merit, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract art, abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscape and still-life. Background and training Nicholson was ...

modernist painting Modernism is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

". In 2009, he showed a large site-specific painting: ''Behemoth'' at

Cornerhouse Cornerhouse was a centre for cinema and the contemporary visual arts, located next to Oxford Road Station on Oxford Street, Manchester, England, which was active from 1985–2015. It had three floors of art galleries, three cinemas, a booksho ...

, Manchester (2009) and went on to exhibit with Sumarria Lunn Gallery at The Hempel, London (2010). In 2010-11 he was one of two artists (the other being

Hannah Maybank Hannah Maybank (born in Stafford 1974) is a British artist best known for the ripped and distressed surfaces of her three-dimensional paintings in Acrylic paint, acrylic. She graduated from an Master of Arts, MA in Painting at the Royal College ...

) selected for the Berwick Gymnasium Arts Fellowships - a six-month residency supported by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and

Arts Council England Arts Council England is an arm's length non-departmental public body of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. It is also a registered charity. It was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three s ...

. The residency took place in a

Nicholas Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor (probably 1661 – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principa ...

designed former military gymnasium in

Berwick-upon-Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land on ...

. In 2013, he was commissioned by HOUSE Festival in Brighton (selected by artist Mariele Neudecker) to make a site-specific painting for a disused pavilion on Brighton's seafront. The piece (''Hero'') is the largest painting by the artist to date. Cherie Federico, editor of ''

Aesthetica ''Aesthetica Magazine'' is an international art and culture magazine, founded in 2002. Published bi-monthly, it covers contemporary art from around the world, across visual arts, photography, architecture, fashion, and design. It has a reader ...

'' magazine has said: "You must spend time with Wightman’s paintings; on the surface they are beautiful and intricate, but like the layers they are made from, there is so much depth to his works". In 2012 he had his first major solo show entitled ''Paramour'' at

Halcyon Gallery Halcyon Gallery is an art gallery in London. Founded in 1982 in Birmingham, it displays work from established and emerging contemporary artists, particularly impressionism and pop art. Location The gallery is located on New Bond Street in Mayfa ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. His work is held in several public collections including the Royal College of Art and General Energy UK. Wightman collaborated with the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

fashion house Akris as part of their Fall / Winter 2014/15 collection. Wightman's first international solo show opened in October 2018 at Duran, Mashaal Gallery in

Montréal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

, Canada. Wightman's last UK solo show ''My Atalanta'' opened in October 2021 a
Long & Ryle
London. The gallery director Sarah Long has said of his work: "His landscape paintings are beautiful distractions. The intricate collaged wallpaper and unusual colour choices are compelling: they function as abstract compositions as well as imaginary vistas. His paintings offer a glimpse of another world - seemingly real yet entirely fictional".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wightman, David 1980 births Living people 20th-century English painters 21st-century English painters Alumni of the Royal College of Art English contemporary artists English landscape painters English male painters People from Stockport 20th-century English male artists 21st-century English male artists

References

Further reading

External links