ARTIST STATEMENT

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My works can be described as semi-surreal oddities pulled from a lucid dream. Each piece serves as a personal response to the increasing unpredictability and instability of life, filtered through a youthful imagination that somehow endures. Drawing images from my mind, I blend the fantastical with objects from my past; this contrast of opposites creates absurd, impractical, and ambiguous pieces that are both playful and cynical. Despite the humorous and sarcastic tones, the works ultimately aim to express resilience. Each piece reflects an effort to adapt, survive, and even thrive despite difficult conditions.

 

The materials used to craft these unique pieces enhance the illusory aesthetic. The actual media—ceramic, wood, foam, and plastics—are shaped and painted to resemble worn, weathered surfaces. These fake industrial finishes imitate the effects of exposure over time and the fading, dreamlike quality of memory.

BIOGRAPHY

 

Dave Clark is a Houston-based multidisciplinary artist whose work draws from his visions of a dreamlike dystopian world. Juxtaposing personal experiences with the fantastical, Clark playfully and sarcastically examines both the complexities of life in American society and the human condition. Using a wide variety of materials and techniques, he often disguises his forms, making wood, clay, foam, and plastic look like aged steel, brick, and mortar.

 

Clark’s works have been displayed in last year’s True North Exhibition, the past two years' Texas National Exhibition, and the Lab on Santa Fe Gallery in Denver, Colorado. New works will be shown in this year’s Baytown Sculpture Trail Exhibit, The Sculpture Garden Exhibit at the Kemp Center in Wichita Falls, as well as in a solo exhibition at the Redbud Arts Center.

 

Clark earned his BFA from Oklahoma State University and returned to his hometown in Southern California, where he started his career as an artist in the entertainment industry. After working for over twenty years in that field across the U.S., he began a new career teaching. Clark earned his MFA from Stephen F. Austin State University and now teaches sculpture in Cypress, Texas.