Transformation is David’s preferred medium. A painter from an early age, he has spent the last few years painting less and walking more, engaging in a sort of body-centric dérive resulting in his own physical transformation. On his walks, David takes snapshots of even the most blasé of encounters; legs and feet in mid-step; womb-like puddles of water; a scab on his knee that hardened into the shape of an island. David incorporates the natural elements and shapes from these excursions into the more cerebral realities of everyday life; the blues of water and sky flood his canvases, as does the perverse, inferred blueness of clay casts of blueberries (packed with antioxidants, he tells me). His repetition of calendar-like grids stands in almost painful contrast to other works which seem obsessed with nature’s literal fruitfulness (there is a lot of fruit in David’s work!); it is his way of accepting and adapting to the rigidity of time, despite what he sees as the inherent fluidity and healing alchemy of nature. Ceramics are integral to David’s work, too; you might find him building an army of horn-like hanging vases reminiscent of tulipiere, or working a jumble of coils into a reflexive Medusa. Part exercise, part decoration, part collection, David’s work materializes the jarring incongruencies of having both a body and a mind that one must care for.
Born and raised in Fresno, CA, David has lived and worked in Los Angeles since 2014. He holds in MFA in Art from CalArts, and a BA from Cal State, Fresno. David’s work has been shown in Los Angeles at the Ace Hotel, Panel, Human Resource, and at CalArts. To schedule a studio visit with David, write to him at davidaguirre [at] alum.calarts.edu.