David Abbott (b.1981) lives and works in Bristol, UK.

Abbott’s work combines visions of the present with recollection in order to explore the subjects of memory and perception.

He is drawn to the cyclical flux of the natural world as an allegory for our own changeable lives. His work speaks to such fluxes and whilst his titles often propose that the scene is narratively poised, the paintings also suggest a backdrop of a deeper tide of infinitesimal time: Seasonal flux and millennial creep.

Abbott’s work explores the landscape as the object of our projections. The fountainhead of solace and old power, full of its own hidden histories and wisdom; a place for our motorways to plough through, for logistics warehouses larger than villages; the backdrop for love, loss, tragedy and comedy. In some of Abbott’s works the landscape even coughs up parts of speech in response to our encroachments. The overall picture is of a landscape entwined in our lives, yet steadfastly separate from it.

Sometimes Abbott’s paintings assert themselves confidently, other times they appear to disappear before our eyes. In some the features of a landscape home into view but others break apart and puzzle back together into abstract forms, suggesting an internal view. His varied approach to surface and fluid dialogue between abstraction and figuration seeks to emphasise these themes: built up layers of paint, sometimes hiding one, two, three other paintings or views underneath.

For Abbott, painting is his best way of remembering, digging up all the forgotten bits in between his more vivid remembrances exploring the tug of war between living in the present and dwelling in memories. His paintings are deep, ever-change landscapes that flicker between recognition and unknowing – composite visions of place, memory and myth.