David McDonald was born in Liverpool, England and had a nomadic upbringing living in Brazil, Venezuela, and Canada during his first 17 years. He has had over twenty solo exhibitions nationwide and has been reviewed by numerous publications including the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New Yorker, the Santa Fean, and Art Ltd. He is a recipient of a 2013 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2006 Pollock Krasner Fellowship. McDonald has taught at University of Southern California, California State Long Beach, New Roads High School, and Crossroads High School, amongst others. His work can be found in the Edward Albee Foundation, Nora Eccles Museum of Art, and the West Collection. He is also a student of Zen Buddhism and Abbot of Dharma Zen Center in LA with over fifteen years of practice experience.
McDonald’s abstract paintings and sculptures fuse the art of the readymade with assemblage, Minimalism, and Postminimalism. Composed of unremarkable materials such as raw and painted wood, bricks, paper, cement, and plaster, McDonald’s sculptures propose an aesthetic rooted in the organic and handmade. Frequent motifs in McDonald’s works include cubes, cylinders, and enamel-coated cement columns resembling tombstones, and their off-kilter compositions suggest a tension between order and chaos. Sometimes titled as self-portraits, McDonald’s abstract forms can be viewed as surrogates for the self.
McDonald’s abstract paintings and sculptures fuse the art of the readymade with assemblage, Minimalism, and Postminimalism. Composed of unremarkable materials such as raw and painted wood, bricks, paper, cement, and plaster, McDonald’s sculptures propose an aesthetic rooted in the organic and handmade. Frequent motifs in McDonald’s works include cubes, cylinders, and enamel-coated cement columns resembling tombstones, and their off-kilter compositions suggest a tension between order and chaos. Sometimes titled as self-portraits, McDonald’s abstract forms can be viewed as surrogates for the self.