David Bates
Painting and Sculpture

Talley Dunn Gallery
August 27 – October 29, 2016

Talley Dunn Gallery is pleased to present Painting and Sculpture, an exhibition of new work by David Bates.  The show will open with a reception on Saturday, August 27th from 6:00 to 8:00 PM and will be on view through October 29, 2016.  The artist will be present at the opening reception.  Accompanying the exhibition is a full color catalogue with an interview between Bates and George Shackelford, Senior Deputy Director at the Kimbell Art Museum. 

Representing a mix of subjects, Bates’ recent series offers a grouping of still-life paintings, reflective Gulf Coast scenes, and frank portraits of the fishermen who earn a living from the coast’s harvest.  Visually tied by the artist’s signature bold forms and dark outlines, the various paintings also show Bates’ continuing interest in capturing the essence of a place, person, or subject, while working through questions of composition and representation.  As the artist recently expressed, “At what point does this [painting] become so formal that you start to lose the smell of those flowers?  I’m always trying to figure out that balance.  I want a certain amount of detail—I care about conveying something.  If it gets too formal, then you can see how it’s built, and there are certain things I like about it.  But then you might be losing some of the thing that inspired me in the first place.”  

A native of Dallas, David Bates received a B.F.A degree from Southern Methodist University in 1975 and then participated in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program before returning to SMU to earn his M.F.A in 1978. Shortly after completing graduate school, Bates participated in several important group exhibitions that traveled to museums around the country, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston. In 1987, Bates’ work was included in the prestigious Biennial Exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art.  Most recently, Bates’ artwork was featured in a joint retrospective exhibition organized by the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in 2014. 

The artist’s paintings and sculpture have been acquired by prominent museums across the country, including the Dallas Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden, Lincoln, Nebraska, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, National Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

We are happy to provide more information regarding any available works. In addition to the selection of artwork featured here, we have a comprehensive inventory of available works that are not on our website.

Please let us know if you’d like to receive a complete checklist of available works by emailing frontdesk@talleydunn.com.