Contact
David Warner
Address: 1030 Aoloa Place, #202B, Kailua, HI 96734
Telephone: 970-309-3919
Email: dwarner@lipkinwarner.com
Web: dwarnerpainting.com
Representation
William Havu Gallery
Address: 1040 Cherokee Street, Denver, Colorado 80204
Telephone: 303-893-2360
Email: info@williamhavugallery.com
Web: williamhavugallery.com
Biography
Born in Port Chester, NY 1954
Lives in Carbondale, CO; Kailua, HI
Education
2017
MFA, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Montpelier, VT
1980
MArch, Columbia University, New York, NY
William Kinne Memorial Travelling Fellowship, 1979
1976
BA, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH
Majors: Studio Art, Highest Honors; Physics
Exhibitions
2018
Association of Hawaii Artists, “47th Annual AHA Contemporary Show 2018,” Honolulu, HI
University of Hawaii School of Law Library: “Currents,” Group exhibition, Honolulu, HI
Boettcher Cultural Pavilion: “New Regionalisms: Contemporary Art in the Western States,” Group exhibition, Denver, CO
Aspen Chapel Gallery: “Still/Life,” Group exhibition, Aspen, CO (curator/participant)
2017
Aspen Chapel Gallery: “Something Other,” Group exhibition, Aspen, CO (curator/participant)
Vermont College of Fine Arts, Post-summer semester exhibition, Montpelier, VT
Vermont College of Fine Arts, Winter/summer student exhibitions, Montpelier, VT
2016
Aspen Chapel Gallery: “postlandscape,” Group exhibition, Aspen, CO (curator/participant)
Vermont College of Fine Arts, Winter/summer student exhibitions, Montpelier, VT
2015
William Havu Gallery: Earth, Water & Sky; James Cook, Jivan Lee, David Warner,” Denver, CO
Aspen Chapel Gallery: “In Between Things,” Group exhibition, Aspen, CO
Vermont College of Fine Arts, Accreditation exhibit, Montpelier, VT
Vermont College of Fine Arts, Summer student exhibition, Montpelier, VT
2014
Quintenz Gallery with David Floria: “David Warner: Mountain, Woods, Water,” Aspen, CO
2013
Pensacola Museum of Art: “David Warner: Mountain, Stream, Shore,” Pensacola, FL
Pascal Gallery: Stammen, “Warner, Williams: A Matter of Nature,” Group Exhibition, Rockport, ME
Red Brick Arts Center: “Fresh Aire,” Group exhibition, Aspen, CO
Quintenz Gallery: Recent Work, Aspen, CO
2012
Aspen Chapel Gallery: “Small Wonders,” Group exhibition, Aspen, CO
Aspen Chapel Gallery: “Sublime,” Group exhibition, Aspen, CO
Glenwood Springs Center for the Arts: “Inspired to Heal,” Group exhibition, Glenwood Springs, CO
Artist’s Statement
I paint objects to access beauty and its embedded costs. The beauty of an object, a rose, for instance, will recognize circumstances that have brought it into my world. A rose may have an attractive surface, and that feeling seduces me. However, a rose lives, dies, and decays. A rose is planted, harvested, and sold. Objects have social histories before they are available for enjoyment. They may carry different symbolic weight depending on the viewer’s context. My interpretation of beauty informs prettiness with an equal acknowledgment of existential and social considerations around an assumed privilege to enjoy them. Otherwise, I see beauty as subverted by prettiness.
I paint objects, such as a still life, a landscape, or a figure, to confront the casual acceptance of their beauty and ignored conditions of their possession. A landscape painting is a rendering of a horizon that has been given or taken by one culture to or from another. A sunset includes beginnings, endings, losses, and gains, as well as moments of beauty and wonder. I make choices as I paint depending on how I can access these issues and respect my feelings of beauty. In my current work, the flowers may or may not be dead, the skies may or may not be choked. The ambiguity is significant because beauty bears the weight of contradiction.
My suspect technical abilities, social awareness, and the legacy of painting that precedes me limit my painting practice. I see no way around that. As such, I don’t believe I have sufficient insight to impose answers. However, I do think, with my work, I have a responsibility to acknowledge my shortcomings and those of society. I can only hope for a mutual moment of comprehension even if it is most akin to a message in a bottle, “help.” This isn’t lost in the way my paintings look. Everything from the palette to technique to materials is this but that, pretty but not, sure but unsure. The paintings, separate from my intentions, can be more. Being drawn to them, but not, is a cost of beauty.