David Wightman (painter)

David Wightman (born in Stockport, Greater Manchester 1980) is an English painter known for his abstract and landscape acrylic paintings using collaged wallpaper.[1] He graduated with an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art in 2003.[2] He lives and works in London.[3]

In 2003, after being nominated for the Lexmark European Art Prize,[4] (and while still studying at the Royal College of Art), Meredith Etherington-Smith, former editor of Art Review, said of his short-listed piece: "David Wightman frames his picture perfect Swiss postcard in the cool collateral of a Ben Nicholson modernist painting".[5]

In 2009, he showed a large site-specific painting: Behemoth at Cornerhouse, Manchester (2009)[6] and went on to exhibit with Sumarria Lunn Gallery at The Hempel, London (2010).[7] In 2010-11 he was one of two artists (the other being Hannah Maybank) selected for the Berwick Gymnasium Arts Fellowships - a six-month residency supported by English Heritage and Arts Council England. The residency took place in a Nicholas Hawksmoor designed former military gymnasium in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland.[8] In 2013, he was commissioned by HOUSE Festival in Brighton (selected by artist Mariele Neudecker)[9] to make a site-specific painting for a disused pavilion on Brighton's seafront. The piece (Hero) is the largest painting by the artist to date.[10]

Cherie Federico, editor of Aesthetica magazine has said: "You must spend time with Wightman’s paintings; on the surface they are beautiful and intricate, but like the layers they are made from, there is so much depth to his works".[11] In 2012 he had his first major solo show entitled Paramour at Halcyon Gallery, London.[12] His work is held in several public collections including the Royal College of Art and General Energy UK.[13] Wightman collaborated with the Swiss fashion house Akris as part of their Fall / Winter 2014/15 collection.

Wightman's first international solo show opened in October 2018 at Duran|Mashaal Gallery in Montréal, Canada. Wightman's last UK solo show My Atalanta opened in October 2021 at Long & Ryle, London. The gallery director Sarah Long has said of his work: "His landscape paintings are beautiful distractions. The intricate collaged wallpaper and unusual colour choices are compelling: they function as abstract compositions as well as imaginary vistas. His paintings offer a glimpse of another world - seemingly real yet entirely fictional".[14]