Sometimes an artist believes that he or she needs to think big if they are to properly express themselves in their artwork. Such an artist is David Mach, born in Methil, near Fife in Scotland, in 1956. He studied for five years at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee, then spent a further three years working towards a masters in sculpture at the Royal College of Art, London, where, since 1982, he has lived and worked.
In 1982 Mach had his first one man exhibition at the Lisson Gallery, London, and since the 1990s has continued to exhibit nationally and internationally. He uses everyday objects such as newspapers, magazines, car tyres, matches and coathangers in his installations. Bringing such diverse items together on a large scale, his artworkis famously bold.
Famous for his dynamic large scale collages, sculptures and bold installations, he recently launched his major new project to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible in 2011 with the installation of a massive coathanger crucifixion figure, suspended from steel supports, outside St Giles Church in Edinburgh. This is the first of four coat hanger crucifixion figures, including a contemporary sculptural version of Calvary, which will be displayed in the exhibition at Edinburgh’s City Art Centre in the summer of 2011. Central to the project will be a large-scale limited edition artist’s version of the King James Bible. Various elements from the project – collages and coathanger sculptures -will be on show throughout the UK in the coming year.
As well as exhibiting extensively, Mach has also made a number of commissioned public sculptures in the UK. He has work in public collections in Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool, the National Portrait Gallery, London, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, the British Council collection and Manchester Art Gallery, He also has work in corporate collections such as Unilever place, Granada Television, BBC, ATK Kearney, Marks and Spencer and the Deutsche Bank. His piece A National Portrait, a series of 15 monumental collages, was exhibited at the Millennium Dome in London.
Collections on an international level in which his work features includes the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, McMaster Museum, Hamilton, Ontario, Musee Leon Dierx, Reunion Island, Kawasaki City Museum, Tokyo, Museum of Art, Auckland, FRAC du Rhones-Alpes, France, FRAC de Franche-Comte, Musee d’art Contemporain, Dole, France, Musee van Hedendaagse kunst, Antwerp, De Werf, Aalst, Belgium, UBS, Geneva, Microsoft, Seattle and Hasbro Inc, New York.
This man is an awesome talent who proves conclusively how artistic the mundane can be in the hands of a genuine craftsman. He produces art of staggering proportions that still manages to shock and amaze the viewer in the depth of meaning that he achieves. I love the astounding art he produces on a regular basis and hope to see much more from him in the future. This section comes from the terms part of the artist’s own website.
http://www.davidmach.com/Terms.asp “Material featured on this site is subject to copyright protection unless otherwise indicated. The copyright protected material may be reproduced free of charge in any format or media without requiring specific permission. This is subject to the material being reproduced accurately and not being used in a derogatory manner or in a misleading context. Where the material is being published or issued to others, the source and copyright status must be acknowledged.”
My thanks to David Mach, who holds copyright on all his works, for allowing us to reproduce images of his work from various websites for this story, and from whose website, as well as Wikipedia, information for the story was obtained.
http://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=6070 www.afiffattouh.com/…/40-terrific-works-of-art-made-from-common-trash http://www.flickr.com/photos/gingerblokey/4235191743/sizes/z/in/photostream/ http://www.bookofjoe.com/2010/06/silver-streak-by-david-mach.html http://www.sculpture.org.uk/image/000000100430/1/ http://www.sculpture.org.uk/image/000000100430/5/ Photo: sculpture.org.uk
