David Price
David Price is a contemporary British artist whose multifaceted practice blends painting, printmaking, drawing and mixed-media work — distinctive for its layered surfaces, formal inventiveness and a persistent dialogue with art-historical references. Born around 1970–1972, Price studied Painting at Edinburgh College of Art, before pursuing a master’s in Sculpture at Newcastle University and then undertaking postgraduate studies in Printmaking at Royal College of Art (RCA), where he completed his MA in 2009.
Early Career and Training
Price’s varied education reflects a deliberate blending of disciplines. Beginning with traditional painting, he expanded into sculpture and printmaking — an unconventional trajectory that enriched his technical repertoire and allowed him to approach pictorial and object-based work from multiple angles.
In his final year at RCA he was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2009), a prestigious platform for emerging British artists. He also held a Print Fellowship at the Royal Academy Schools for three years — an indication of his fluency and promise in print media.
Artistic Practice & Visual Language
Price’s work frequently synthesises elements of print, drawing and painting to produce richly layered compositions. In his own words, he embraces techniques like etching, aquatint, screen-printing, alongside painting on panel or canvas — blending the precision of printmaking with the material subtlety of paint.
His imagery often references the tradition of still life and floral composition, but refracts it through abstraction, patterning, and expressive mark-making. Works described by his gallery as “busy, twisting floral arrangements set against brightly coloured backgrounds” suggest a fusion of classical motifs and contemporary energy.
Price’s technique is notable for its layering: he builds up surfaces through successive applications of colour and texture, producing a depth that resonates with the accumulated histories of print and painting. In interviews he has referred to aquatint and etching not as ends in themselves but as components in a broader vocabulary — one that privileges chance, surface, and iteration over exact reproduction.
Exhibitions, Collections & Recognition
Since his selection for New Contemporaries in 2009, Price has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. He is represented by Frestonian Gallery, London.
His work has featured in group and solo exhibitions — for instance “The Flowers She Sent” (2022, Frestonian Gallery) and “Gardens of Ideas” (2019, Frestonian Gallery, alongside artists Bob & Roberta Smith and Jessica Voorsänger).
Significantly, Price’s work has entered the permanent collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London, demonstrating institutional recognition and signalling confidence in the longevity of his practice.
He also combines his artistic practice with teaching roles. Since 2015 he has served as Printmaking Tutor at London Metropolitan University, and he has also taught short courses at Central Saint Martins and earlier held teaching positions at Bournemouth University of the Arts, Tate Modern, and other institutions.
Price’s work negotiates the space between tradition and reinvention: by drawing on the heritage of floral still life, printmaking and classical composition — while applying modern techniques of layering, abstraction, and colour sensibility — he creates works that feel of their time yet rooted in the history of European art.
His attitude toward printmaking is particularly noteworthy: rather than seeking perfect fidelity or technical purity, Price embraces the unpredictability and chance that emerges through printing processes, evoking what he calls the “moment of magic” when a print is pulled and its secrets revealed.
This openness to experimentation gives his work a vibrant, living quality — even in formally structured small editions, there is a sense of flux, growth, and organic transformation. In a period where painting and printmaking are often treated as discrete disciplines, Price’s hybrid practice offers a model of integration, renewal and re-interpretation.