David FeBland was born in London; however David is very much a New Yorker. He was educated at the Universities of Cincinnati, Manchester and Virginia in the early 1970s. His highly distinctive figurative paintings have been exhibited across the U. S. His work can be found in the corporate collections of the American Express Company, AT and T, the Chase Manhattan Bank Corporation, Citibank Corporation, Columbia Broadcasting System, Dupont Chemical, the Exxon Corporation, Hilton Hotels International, the Mobil Corporation, the Museum of the City of New York, the Prudential Insurance Company and Trans World Airlines amongst many others.
Artist Statement-
Some years ago, I began to produce paintings that expressed my best and worst impulses set out in the context of public spaces. It was time to give my inner devil an airing. Making virtue of vice, I imbued anonymous figures with swaggering power, elevated faceless nobodies to subject status and filled the streets with stalking female mastodons, all in the service of getting even.
Well, adversity loves company and, Iiving in New York, I found myself in the perfect place to observe the tribulations of others while forgetting about my own. So many nuisances at a stone’s throw.
Those paintings were dark, crowded and monochromatic. As I became more and more absorbed in the project, I found an unexpected conflict beginning to emerge. As I fell more deeply in love with the act of painting, my work became more resonant. My brushwork, palette, depiction of light and air……the paintings were becoming more, well beautiful. Today I see the disconnect between some of my subject matter and my method of depiction as a source of strength…and subversion. It’s a willful act of seducing the viewer into staying with me in the picture.
Well, adversity loves company and, Iiving in New York, I found myself in the perfect place to observe the tribulations of others while forgetting about my own. So many nuisances at a stone’s throw.
Those paintings were dark, crowded and monochromatic. As I became more and more absorbed in the project, I found an unexpected conflict beginning to emerge. As I fell more deeply in love with the act of painting, my work became more resonant. My brushwork, palette, depiction of light and air……the paintings were becoming more, well beautiful. Today I see the disconnect between some of my subject matter and my method of depiction as a source of strength…and subversion. It’s a willful act of seducing the viewer into staying with me in the picture.
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