iconography daVid MACH - Opera Gallery

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daVid MACH
iconography

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daVid MACH
iconography
For the first time in the history of the gallery, Opera Gallery will host a solo exhibition of Scottish artist David
Mach.
We have taken immense pleasure in assembling “Iconography”, an exhibition that we think is a unique
occasion to discover the complex and exciting work of David Mach.
Initially a sculptor, David Mach’s style consists of elegant assemblages and accumulations of mass-produced
items brought together to create a unique piece of art. We strongly believe that he is an exceptionally
creative artist whose work is both a genuine tribute to the 20 th century’s icons and a smart homage to
contemporaneousness.
For this exhibition, we have carefully selected a range of sculpture-installations and collages that are charged
with energy and an unmistakable visual statement on our society.
World-renowned artist and an Academician from the Royal Academy of Arts, David Mach is undoubtedly
one of the most up and coming European artists.
As for “Iconography”, it is our modest attempt to give an insight of his multifaceted talent and creativity.
Gilles Dyan
Opera Gallery Group
Founder and Chairman
Jean-David Malat
Opera Gallery
Director, London

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bioGRAPHY Part 1
Born in 1956, in Methil, Fife, Mach joined Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1974 where he experimented with many of the techniques
and ideas, which he has continued to develop. After graduating he was awarded a place at the Royal College of Art in London, emerging with
a Masters degree in 1982. In 1988 he was nominated for the Turner Prize and ten years later he was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy
of Arts, and later as a Professor of Sculpture.
Over the years he has made his mark with a hectic output and a range of major art works including the Temple of Tyre in Edinburgh, the
Sumo Wrestler, the Brick Train at Darlington, the Acropolis of magazines, the Big Heids off the M8, the UK’s Self Portrait - an epic collage,
commissioned for the Millennium Dome, a representation of the first moonwalk in wire coat hangers and many more. A pair of Mach collages
on a football theme currently feature centre space in Edinburgh’s new and highly acclaimed Weston Link, joining the Royal Scottish Academy
and the National Gallery of Scotland.
Mach’s artistic style is based on flowing assemblages of mass-produced found art objects. Typically these include magazines, vicious teddy
bears, newspapers, car tyres, match sticks and coat hangers. One of his earliest magazine pieces, Adding Fuel to the Fire, was an installation
in Barcelona, assembled from an old truck and several cars surrounded and subsumed by approximately 100 tons of magazines, individually
arranged to create the impression that the vehicles were being caught in an explosion of flames and billowing smoke.
In the early 1980s Mach started to produce some smaller-scale works assembled out of unstruck match sticks. These mostly took the form of
human or animalistic heads and masks, with the coloured tips of the match heads arranged to construct the patterned surface of the face.
An early influential sculpture, for example, was Polaris, exhibited outside the Royal Festival Hall, South Bank Centre, London in 1983. This
consisted of some 6000 car tyres arranged as a lifesize replica of a Polaris submarine. Mach intended it as a protest against the nuclear
arms race meant to stir controversy. A member of the public who took exception to the piece tried to burn it down, which led Mach suffering
severe burns as he got caught in the fire.
A second strand to his monumental installations from industrial objects, David Mach also works on his collage pieces. Partly as a result of
having access to thousands of reproduced images in the magazines left over from many of his installations, Mach began to experiment with
producing collages. So far, this has culminated in National Portrait, a 3 metres by 70 metres collage for the Millennium Dome that featured
many images of British people at work and at play. The impressive busts His’n’Hers, created in 1999, and The Spaceman, presented in
2000 in Paris and in The Hague, both demonstrate Mach’s great talent.
Some of his permanent public works include Out of Order in Kingston upon Thames, the Brick Train (a depiction of an LNER Class A4 steam
engine made from 185000 bricks, which can be seen near a supermarket on the A66 just outside Darlington) and the Big Heids visible from
the M8 between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
In October 2006, one of the highlights of the monumental sculptures shown in the Jardins des Tuileries in Paris, during the FIAC was It Takes
Two, made out of two giant Sumos and one container.
The leading contemporary artist and sculptor is also now the University of Dundee’s first Visiting Professor of Inspiration and Discovery.
(David Mach: “This is going to be an incredible source of inspiration and discovery for me. The Life Sciences at the University of Dundee are
so exciting I am sure I will be exposed to an unimaginable range of visuals and ideas. What luck to be involved in such a project.”)
Mach has enormous passion, energy and a refreshingly modest approach to his work and is not afraid to court controversy.
David Mach lives and works in London with his wife Lesley.

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bioGRAPHY Part 2
1956 - Born in Methil, Fife (Scotland).
1974/79 - Studies at the Duncan of Jordanston College of Art, Dundee, Scotland.
1975 - Pat Holmes Memorial Award.
1976/78- Travels abroad within the Duncan of Drumfork Travelling Scholarship, then within some SED minor and major travelling
scholarships.
1979/82 - Studies at the Royal College of Art (RCA), London.
1982 - Drawing Prize of RCA.
1988 - Nomination for the Turner Award, Tate Gallery, London.
1989/91 - Contributor in the Contemporary Art Summer Seminar, Kitakyushu.
1992 - Lord Provost Award, RGI, Glasgow.
1994/97 - Commissioned by Darlington Borough Council, Northern Arts (U.K) and Wm Morrison Supermarkets for a large-scale
sculpture, entitled Train, settled up on the site of Darlington, to commemorate the first British railway. Measuring 40 metres long, Train
is the biggest outdoor sculpture ever realised in England, and was unveiled on June 24, 1997 - First personal exhibition entitled The Last
Detail at the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris.
1998 - David Mach is elected Member of The Royal Academy of Arts, London. He is selected to participate in the M8 Project, consisting in
monumental sculpture installations along the M8 highway, connecting Glasgow to Edinburgh. Solo exhibition at the Cincinnati Contemporary
Arts Center, USA.
1999 - David Mach unveils his monumental sculptures Lanark I, Lanark II and Lanark III along the M8 Highway. Presentation of His n’Hers,
two wide coat hangers busts, in The Hague within the outdoors show Den Haag Sculptuur. Realises a monumental collage-mural of more
than 75 metres long, commemorating the XX th century for the millennium celebrations at the Millennium Dome, in London.
2000 - Presentation of Spaceman, a wide coat hangers sculpture almost 2.5 metres high, within the exhibition L’Homme qui Marche in
the Gardens of the Palais Royal, Paris, and then within the new edition of the outdoor exhibition Den Haag Sculptuur, The Hague.
Second exhibition solely devoted to his sculpture at the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris.
Appointed Professor of Sculpture, Royal Academy, London.
2002 - Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Dundee.
2003 - Third personal exhibition at the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris.
2004 - Made Honorary Member of the Royal Scottish Academy.
First Visiting Professor of Inspiration and Discovery at University of Dundee (Scotland).
2007 - In Seine, tarpaulin based on a collage realised with the support of the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont for the National Opera
of Paris, exhibited on the façade of the Palais Garnier.
New personnal exhibition at the Galerie Jérôme de Noirmont, Paris.
2008 - David Mach’s works are featured in London’s Royal Academy of Arts group exhibition “New Prints from the Royal College of Art
Selected by Chris Orr RA”. The same year, the Jill George Gallery in London hosts a solo exhibition of the artist, entitled “Tête à Tête”.
2009 - The sculptor is featured in London’s Royal Academy of Arts’ Summer Exhibition as well as in the group exhibition “Vraoum ! trésors
de la bande dessinée et art contemporain” at La Maison Rouge in Paris.
2010 - Once again, David Mach makes the headlines with an impressive gorilla made out of metal coat hangers (Silver streak) displayed at
the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in London.

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Red hat / Yellow face
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.
Blue hat / Pale face
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.

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Pussy Galore
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.
Black magic woman
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.

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Mouth to mouth
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.
American beauty
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.

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Fat Betty
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.
Private dancer
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.

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Blue belle
Mixed media postcards on wood • 183 x 183 cm - 72 x 72 in.
Call girl
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.

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Silver streak
Coat hangers • 302 x 240 x 160 cm - 119 x 94.5 x 63 in.

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Eastern promise
Mixed media postcards on wood • 183 x 183 cm - 72 x 72 in.
Sherene
Mixed media postcards on wood • 183 x 183 cm - 72 x 72 in.

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Donnie Darko
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.
Tricky Mickey
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.

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Double Dutch
Mixed media postcards on wood • 183 x 183 cm - 72 x 72 in.
Rain man
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.

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Full stop
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.
Spot on
Mixed media postcards on wood • 183 x 183 cm - 72 x 72 in.

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The ring master
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.
Danielle
Mixed media postcards on wood • 183 x 183 cm - 72 x 72 in.

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Cocktail
Mixed media postcards on wood • 152,5 x 152,5 cm - 60 x 60 in.