David King's work is now on exhibit at the Visual Aid Gallery on Post Street..

Collages by David King, in an exhibit entitled “A Thin Line,” are now on display at the Visual Aid gallery at 57 Post Street, 9th floor. Gallery hours are Tuesday - Friday, 2 – 6pm, or by appointment. Visual Aid is a nonprofit organization that encourages artists with life-threatening illnesses to continue their creative work.

David King’s work explores his profound interest in the metaphysical - the underlying or fundamental interconnectedness of things. In his abstract work, it is difficult to determine if the forms are to be read as microcosmic or macrocosmic; are we looking at a cell cluster or a planetary body? His narrative pieces are created to be visually beautiful, intellectually stimulating, and sometimes humorous. All of his collages are constructed in the traditional, cut-and-paste method, and have an obsessive attention to detail. 

King’s work has been shown in Europe and across the U.S., including venues such as Artist’s Space in New York, The Soap Factory in Minneapolis, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, and The Lab - both in San Francisco. He was recently an artist-in-residence at the San Francisco Dump, and he is also the recipient of an artist’s grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. More of his collages and information can be found at davidkingcollage.com. 

“I've always been interested in collage,” King tells Bay Times. “I love how accessible and low-tech the medium is, and that anyone can pick up some scissors and glue and do collage.”

His inspiration, he explains, is “as a kid, looking through a microscope at a slide of suburban swamp water, I experienced surprise and awe at the new, previously hidden world I found there.” He says, “As an adult, I’ve experienced some of the metaphysical realms that we are not normally conscious of - dimensions of being that I now know are absolutely real. My collages explore the overlap of those two experiences.”  

In most of his work, he says his vision is to create pieces that, despite all that troubles the world, mirror the peacefulness of the metaphysical and benevolent energy that is also part of his experience. The natural environments reflect a utopian ideal and are meant to point the viewers towards their own, peaceful, self-fulfilled existence. 

His message to art viewers is that “beneath it all, the universe reverberates with bejeweled light.”

The pieces are from a series entitled, “Elysium,” which in Greek mythology is a conception of the afterlife that, separate from Hades, was initially reserved for mortals related to the gods and other heroes; later, expanding to include those chosen by the gods, the righteous, and the heroic, to remain there after death, to live a blessed and happy life. “I'd like to think those people who died from AIDS live in such a place,” he muses.

What does he want people who view his art to come away feeling? He answers in four succinct words, “Awed. Inspired.

At peace.”