David King

David King was born in Birmingham in 1946. He studied at Sutton Coldfield School of Art (1962-65), Leeds College of Art (1965-68) and at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College, London (1968-70).

Like many others of his generation, David King has taught in schools of art in order to support his work as an artist. His academic appointments range from visiting lectureships at Bath Academy of Art, Norwich School of Art, the Central School of Art, London, and schools of art in Canterbury, Exeter and Birmingham from 1973 to 1991, to long-term appointments as Principal Lecturer/Head of Sculpture at West Surrey College of Art and Design, Farnham (1981-88), and Middlesex Polytechnic (1988-91). Since then he has been Guest Lecturer at various art schools including Wimbledon School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools.

David King's sculpture holds mysteries which take time to unfold. They also include impossibilities and references to literature and history as well as the everyday. In early work he explored the impossibility of clouds captured on stalks. These were large works with a surrealist streak that was also played out in his drawings and prints of the early 1970s. It is the unlikely combination of imagery in his sculptures that marks his work out as being highly individual, and which carries a message beyond its literal appearance. He uses association and metaphor to great effect. The house motif, and roof-tops in particular, recur frequently in his mixed media sculptures. Architectural elements are used for the messages or stories they can convey. Roof-tops may support a dancing figure, a boulder or plates and bowls - simple domestic appliances that reflect information about the interior - but it is the other strange forms that test the viewer. Wood, found objects and metals in all manner of construction techniques give a rich flavour to King's work. Some are painted, others exist in their raw state, but all are finished with skill and precision.