Works
  • Dave McDermott, The Lotos Garden (Frau mit Korallen), 2020
    Dave McDermott
    The Lotos Garden (Frau mit Korallen), 2020
    Oil, 23k gold, yarn, Masonite on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
  • painting depicting a forest green orb over a "pi" symbol over a golden paneled background.
    Dave McDermott
    IHMAIWTD (Completed Figure), 2022
    Oil, pigment stick, sizing lacquer, wax, 23k gold on panel
    190.5 x 160 cm | 75 x 63 in
  • Dave McDermott, The Fantasy, 2016
    Dave McDermott
    The Fantasy, 2016
    23k gold leaf, yarn on panel
    238 x 183 cm | 93 3/4 x 72 1/8 in
  • Oil on linen marine varnish, yarn of an abstract image
    Dave McDermott
    Split Flee (Schism), 2014
    Oil, linen, marine varnish, Caran D’ache, yarn on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
  • Dave McDermott, Everybody Else I, 2018
    Dave McDermott
    Everybody Else I, 2018
    Oil stick, oil and 23k gold on panel
    63.5 x 53.3 cm | 25 x 21 in
  • Dave McDermott, The Visitation (The Dumb Fucking Hippie Who Ruined The Whole World), 2013
    Dave McDermott
    The Visitation (The Dumb Fucking Hippie Who Ruined The Whole World), 2013
    Yarn, oil, wax, canvas, 23k gold, Flashe on panel
    198.1 x 152.4 cm | 78 x 60 in
  • Dave McDermott, A Dictionary of Dialect: Somewhere (1), 2016
    Dave McDermott
    A Dictionary of Dialect: Somewhere (1), 2016
    Oil, 23K gold on panel
    35.6 x 27.9 cm | 14 x 11 in
  • Dave McDermott, Darth Bader Meinhof, 2014
    Dave McDermott
    Darth Bader Meinhof, 2014
    Oil, yarn, 23k gold, canvas, linen, archival pigment print, pastel, oil stick, caran D’ache, Flashe, graphite, and wax on panel
    Three panels, each: 237.8 x 182.9 cm | 93 5/8 x 72 in
  • Dave McDermott, At Sea, 2017
    Dave McDermott
    At Sea, 2017
    Oil, oil stick, 23k gold, Flashe, sizing lacquer, map pins on panel
    237.8 x 182.9 x 5 cm | 93 5/8 x 72 x 2 in
Biography

Dave McDermott's work surveys the tropes we have inherited throughout our collective history, and translates them into an expansive language of his own making. There are echoes of both Classicism and Dada in McDermott’s work, an assertion that there is ultimately no hierarchical difference between the sublime and the absurd. His paintings are steeped in historical (and art-historical) references, personal histories, literary, cinematic, and cultural references (both high and low), but they eschew didactic or moral positions. Instead McDermott recasts his subjects as stand-ins for ourselves, through which we may gaze into the reflection of our individual and shared consciousness. The interaction of incongruous materials on the canvas is paramount to his work. Fragmented perspectives—obscured by fluctuating vantage points, and jigsaw-like arrangements— shift and roil on the canvas. Intricate yarn patterns, gold leaf, plaster, and expressive brushwork create differentiation between themes, and this commingling of materials imparts the unbound characters and forms with a sense of individual elegance.

 

Dave McDermott (b. 1974 in Santa Cruz, CA, US) lives and works in Los Angeles, CA (US). He earned his BFA from the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, CA (US), and his MFA from Parsons School of Design in New York, NY (US). Selected solo exhibitions include: The Varieties of Religious Experience, GRIMM, New York, NY (US); West, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); The Long Goodbye, GRIMM, New York, NY (US); The Idiot, Brennan & Griffin, New York, NY (US); Goethe’s Girlfriend, Brennan & Griffin, New York, NY (US); The Power and Influence of Joseph Wiseman, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); Pleasure Centre, Twig, Brussels (BE); Tot, Duve, Berlin (DE); A Rake’s Progress, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); The Modern Temper, Duve, Berlin (DE); Most Of What Follows Is True, Royale, San Francisco, CA (US). Selected group exhibitions include Passing Leap, Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY (US); East Side to the West Side, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY (US); Huidige Zaken, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL); Beyond the Object, Brand New Gallery, Milan (IT); Black Medicine (Dave McDermott/Nick van Woert), Room East, New York, NY (US); Hi, Low and in Between, curated by Matthew Day Jackson & Simone Subal, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL). His work is included in various collections such as: Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar (NL); Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, West Palm Beach, CA (US); Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara (CA); Zabludowicz Collection, New York, NY (US) and London (UK), among others. 

Exhibitions
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