Biography (Copy 2 )
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A B O U T
What I do contends with power relations, or hierarchical structures through the associative power of language. The work I make is often realised in the form of unique posters and prints, objects, and spaces, that draw upon existing motifs or stylistic codes re-purposed into new contexts.
Despite a world of labels, what happens in the studio often evolves into a personalised pursuit of (re)production to produce a parallel structure of meaning, one which deliberately aims to re-translate, or destabilize existing conventions and modes of authority. As a result, each time a transformation takes place something different occurs. This feeling is in-itself nothing but a form of sensation; one which subverts an established logic. It is one that regularly draws upon perceptions of class and identity and has always been the foundational method in what I do.
Through drawing, painting, and collage, a more economic approach to materials has recently generated new work best described as 'word props' where the starting point of each formal outcome is a measured space according to the width of the digits on my right hand. This approach has led to an accidental abstraction; one that pursues poetic equivalence between the interpretive power of the printed word (both its loaded connotation and as an abstract sign) and the power of drawing as an approximate measure of perception. These works are often realised in the form of genealogically repeating sequences, or social chains to consider the psychological effects and optical properties between reading and seeing, which sometimes enter the world as small artists publications.
A number of works are held in various public institutions including the Whitworth Art Gallery, Tate collection and library. I am currently Reader in Fine Art at Manchester School of Art, and formerly lecturer in Painting & Printmaking at Glasgow School of Art. I currently live and work between Manchester & Scotland.
Further details:
* Matt’s Gallery, London
* White Columns Curated Artist’s Registry, New York
EDUCATION
2010 Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Dutch Ministry of Culture.
CURRENT & UPCOMING
Nov 2022 - Jan 2023 A pastiche of Different Techniques, Solo Exhibition, Moon Grove, Manchester
Autumn 2022- Spring 2023. Speaking & Unspeaking: New Approaches to Printed Media. Funded by Arts Council Developing Your Creative Practice
CV
2021 The Serving Library Collection, 019, Ghent.
2021 Drawing Biennial, The Drawing Room, London. 2021
2019 Double Act, Cample Line Gallery, SW Scotland * (Catalogue)
2019 Research Paper: Abstract Then - Abstract Now (Drawing as an archeology of the present, from the Neolithic to Gustav Metzger) Drawing Research Forum, The Drawing Room, London. Details here / Full Paper here
2019 Annotated Compendia, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh & Touring
2019 CR McBerny, Berlin/Manchester, (Slimvolume Catalogue)
2019 Drawing Biennial, The Drawing Room, London (Catalogue)
2018 The Serving Library V David Osbaldeston, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham Trent University.
2018 Maquettes, THE BLOCK, London
2017 Drawing Biennial, The Drawing Room, London
2016 The Practice of Theories, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge.
2015 David Osbaldeston, The Top & Bottom of It. Mechanism for a Future Reference, Matt’s Gallery, London. *
2015 Modern History, Vol 1, 2, & 3 Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool. Atkinson Gallery, Southport, Bury Art Gallery, Manchester. Curated by Lynda Morris,
2015 Drawing Biennial, The Drawing Room, London.
2014 David Osbaldeston, Chancellors Fellow, Residency in Art Writing, Edinburgh College of Art & Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop,
2014 Annals of the Twenty Ninth Century, Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge.
2014 David Osbaldeston, The Measure of All Things, The City Dome, Collective Gallery, Edinburgh. *
2014 A Model of the Serving Library, Dexter Sinister, Tate, Liverpool.
2013 David Osbaldeston, Inflection Sandwich, Piper Keys, London.
2012 Marbled Reams, organised by Tom Godfrey, The Modern Institute (projects), Glasgow
2010 Rijksakademie Open Ateliers, Amsterdam.
2008 The Pleasure of Your Company, Nought to Sixty, ICA, London
2008 Another Shadow Fight, International Project Space, University of Central England, Bourneville, Birmingham. *
2006 EASTWORK Commission, EAST International, Norwich.
2006 Your Answer is Mine, Matt's Gallery, London. *
2004 Romantic Detachment, Grizedale Arts, PS1, New York.
2003 Publish & Be Damned, Cubitt Gallery & St James’ Crypt, Clerkenwell, London.
CREDIT
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