"Artists clearly don't always use the full spectrum of color available; Francisco de Zurbarán and Diego Velázquez worked in black tonalities, and black remained present in Spanish painting. Henri Matisse would again use black after reintroducing it as a color after Fauvism. Black as a color can also stand for itself and not necessarily as a chosen representation of something in particular. Tactility or touch is an aspect that has always been a part of painting, however diminished this has been in mainstream painting discourse. Art is recursive, bearing the sign of an eternal return of one kind or another."

— David Rhodes

David Rhodes (b. 1955 Manchester, England) is known for his simple and direct use of materials—brush, paint, canvas—elemental facture, and visual complexity, his use of color is entirely limited to black paint and raw canvas or Sumi ink and paper. Drawing is concentrated to the use of diagonal line and vertical axis. The brevity of this approach is distinctive at a time when contemporary art tends toward spectacle. Utility is important here, canvas and paint are used in a way that corresponds to both the handmade, and the surface of the day to day world. An ambiguous figure ground configuration and rhythmic pattern activates the picture plane; reemerging each time as new juxtapositions in ongoing iterative series. Diagonality in dynamic relation to the rectangular shape of the painting, avoids the self-containment of deductive structuring and the grid. Both intention and contingency, precision and chance, interchange in a material process that obfuscates nothing yet insistently presents movement, contradiction and paradox. Although limits are set, and the medial constraints of paint and canvas are accepted, there is no proposition to be pursued to an end point;  evident rather, is a consistent desire to both explore and renew painting.

He has exhibited internationally including one-person exhibitions at Anthony Wilkinson Gallery, London (1995); Palacete Viscondes de Balsemao, Porto (2004); Centrum, Berlin (2012); Galerie Katharina Krohn, Basel (2012); Hionas Gallery, New York (2013 and 2016); Tat Art, Barcelona (2017) and most recently Helm Contemporary (2024) and High Noon Gallery (2024) both New York. His work has been included in numerous two-person and group exhibitions, including, Gary Stephan / David Rhodes at Hionas Gallery, New York (2019); Notebook curated by Joanne Greenbaum at 56 Henry, New York (2019); Downtown Painting curated by Alex Katz at Peter Freeman Inc., New York (2019); Unfurled at 1 GAP Gallery, New York (2021) curated by David Cohen; Singing in Unison at The Scully Tomasko Foundation and Below Grand, New York (2022) curated by Phong Bui and Cal McKeever; Machbarkeitsstudien at Glue, Berlin (2023) curated by Dag Przybilla and Beyond the Surface, at Westbeth Gallery, New York (2024) curated by Vida Geranmayeh. He has independently curated exhibitions in London, Berlin, and New York, most recently Split at Zürcher Gallery, New York (2017). His work is in the permanent collections of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Huntington Museum, Los Angeles; The Victoria & Albert Museum, London; CCA Andratx, Mallorca, and The Bohuslans Museum, Uddevalla. He was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and nominated for a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award in 2022. After living in London, Berlin and Barcelona he now lives in New York City.

2024

Aletheia, High Noon Gallery, New York (solo) (US)

Partita, Helm Contemporary, New York (solo) (US)

Beyond the Surface, Westbeth Gallery, New York (US)

Curated by Vida Geranmayeh

2023

Machbarkeitsstudien, GLUE, Berlin (D)

Curated by Dag Przybilla

Positions, Galerie oqbo, Berlin Art Fair, Berlin (D)

2022

Monotypes, Hemmings Gallery, Ketchum, Idaho (US) 

Singing in Unison, Part 2

The Scully Tomasko Foundation, New York (US)

Curated by Phong Bui and Cal McKeever

Singing in Unison, Part 3

Below Grand, New York (US)

Curated by Phong Bui and Cal McKeever

2021 

Ten, Hionas Gallery, New York (US)

Unfurled, 1 GAP Gallery, New York (US)

Curated by David Cohen

The Secret Garden, Equity Gallery, New York (US)

Curated by David Cohen

2020

From Dark to Light, Jason McCoy Gallery, New York (US)

Curated by Stephanie Buhmann

Letter From New York, Marcin Muchalski / David Rhodes

Jason McCoy Gallery, New York (US)

Curated by Stephanie Buhmann

2019

Playtime, Arthouse 1, London (UK)

Curated by Sharon Hall

Summer, CCA Kunsthalle, Andratx, Mallorca (ES)

Downtown Painting, Peter Freeman Inc., New York (US)

Curated by Alex Katz

Notebook, 56 Henry, New York (US)

Curated by Joanne Greenbaum