David Surman

David Surman is a London-based artist. After studying animation at the Newport Film School (2002) and film at the University of Warwick (2004), he chose to focus on drawing and painting.

"In my work I use figurative forms, executed in a way that seems easy and immediate. I do this because I believe that art should be understood as something natural, like breathing, which comes spontaneously from everyone. In each work, my goal is to create a structure of thought and feeling, which is both universal and specific. In recent years, I have become increasingly interested in projecting human experience onto the natural world. I use elements of pathos and caricature in a calculated way to imbue the figures with sincerity and irony, vivacity and psychology. I also seek to question the hierarchies of taste and value that structure both art and our vision of the natural world. Through humor, tenderness and pessimism, I show the condition of precariousness shared by all life on our radically changing planet."

The artist participated in 14 solo and group exhibitions in 2023, in galleries around the world. For example:

  • Theo Gallery, Seoul
  • Sens Gallery, Hong Kong
  • Bean Gallery, London
  • Thamesmead, Texas