portrait for human presence book

W h i t t a k e R

DAVID KIM WHITTAKER 

A PORTRAIT FOR HUMAN PRESENCE

CONTENTS 

THE EXISTENCE 

THIS MIRROR 

'I' IS A LANDSCAPE 

WORKS 

BIOGRAPHY 

8 

18 

24 

28 

158

Published by Fondazione Mudima, Via Alessandro Tadino, 26, 20124 Milano, Italy in 2017 

© 2017: 

Paintings: David Kim Whittaker from 2011-2017 

Photography of Paintings: Joseph Clarke, Alban Roinard & Graeme Gaunt 

Portrait & Detail Photographs from the Studio: 

Joseph Clarke (pages 2, 6/7, 10/11, 16/17, 21, 22/23, 26/27, 156/157, 159) & Lauren Bowley (pages 15, 25 & 160) 

Words: Joseph Clarke, David Kim Whittaker & David Rosenberg 

Design: Joseph Clarke 

Cover Image: 'Portrait for Human Presence XII (Maximum in Life Not Death)' 

All rights reserved. Except for the purposes of review, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, 

in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. 

Produced with the kind support of Opera Gallery (operagallery.com) 

ISBN 978-88-99925-11-6

For Mum... 

...memory is no small thing

THE EXISTENCE 

JOSEPH CLARKE 

“From the standpoint of daily life, 

however, there is one thing we do 

know: that we are here for the sake of each 

other - above all for those upon whose 

smile and well-being our own happiness 

depends, and also for the countless 

unknown souls with whose fate we are 

connected by a bond of sympathy. Many 

times a day I realize how much my own 

outer and inner life is built upon the labors 

of my fellow men, both living and dead, 

and how earnestly I must exert myself 

in order to give in return as much as I 

have received”. 

Albert Einstein 

post-war arts heritage combined with its 

picture perfect surroundings. Just away 

from the harbour front, I found a narrow 

passage way. Half way down, in a small 

unit, I first encountered a young, not fully 

artistically matured, David Kim standing 

alongside his imposing paintings. It 

seemed strange and askew. Brutal and 

confrontational. ‘He’ and ‘it’ didn’t fit at all 

with the surroundings. Amongst the trivial 

it was the first and only visceral encounter 

with something that hooked me in this 

strange little town. Of course this was 

many years ago and much has changed, 

but I mention it only to emphasize the 

importance of this task to me. Our paths 

have inter-twined for so long now. 

On embarking on the compiling of this 

publication on the enigmatic artwork of 

David Kim Whittaker and the curation of 

the related exhibition at the Fondazione 

Mudima in Milan, I have found it important 

to reflect on the purpose of centering my 

own life within the world of 'art'. This is a 

project I feel obligated to do full justice. 

I first met Whittaker 25 years ago. I was 

16 years old, visiting St. Ives in Cornwall, 

England on family holiday. This small town 

was full of trashy tourist galleries, a twisted 

by-product mutating from an important 

So to return to my questioning; why the 

field of ‘art'? I often feel baffled by our 

species. When I struggle to breath; 'arts' 

potential occasionally offers me a gulp 

of air. The objective world we create 

seems ever increasingly obsessed with 

logical observation. Finding answers to 

questions, often without first interrogating 

our requirements from those answers, or 

even if the questions pursued are of 

fundamental moral value or reward. 'Our' 

quantified world has become ever messy. 

The mysteries of which are only ever 

8

justified when answers can be clearly 

pointed at and measurements taken; 

when things are proven. Proof. I’ve never 

really understood it. For me it never seems 

to prove much at all. The true nature of 

reality has always been a little beyond my 

comprehension. Personally, I'm content 

with that; for everything to be possible 

and nothing fixed. So my ‘art’ world, the 

camp where I have pitched my existential 

tent, when functioning at its best, is a 

celebration of the metaphysical abstract 

over the empirical. Metaphysics continues 

to ask questions where science gives up, 

and it doesn’t even expect the answers. 

For me that is where truth hides, in the 

acceptance that ‘all' cannot be pinned 

down and will, and perhaps should, always 

be beyond us. Fundamental questions 

and the neccesary faith that ensues, offer 

me far more comfort than proof. Carl 

Jung wrote in ‘The Archetypes and the 

Collective Unconscious’; “If it be true that 

there can be no metaphysics transcending 

human reason, it is no less true that there 

can be no empirical knowledge that is not 

already caught and limited by the a priori 

structure of cognition”. 

David Kim Whittaker is the quintessential 

ontological artist, whose whole life has 

been an examination of what it is to be 

human, whilst simultaneously greeting 

the impossibility of the task. Instead the 

remaining (no small) duty is to catch the 

moth in the net for the briefest of moments, 

accepting that it must once again be 

set free. 

In an introduction I once wrote for David 

Kim I included the following from Lewis 

Carroll’s 1865 classic ‘Alice’s Adventures 

in Wonderland’; “Who are YOU?” said the 

Caterpillar. This was not an encouraging 

opening for a conversation. Alice replied, 

rather shyly, “I - I hardly know, sir, just 

at present - at least I know who I WAS 

when I got up this morning, but I think I 

must have been changed several times 

since then”. The story of a young Alice 

and her journey through Wonderland 

possets the notion that we are what we 

dream we will become. That identity is 

ambiguous, internal and ephemeral, our 

own warren to explore. Perhaps, where 

some of the tunnels remain blocked, 

consciously or unconsciously, through 

art they can be accessed. Philosophically 

it is an interesting concept that 

everything that we witness, think, dream, 

and have said to us can inform and 

indeed change the person that we are. 

9

Resulting in an ever-expanding maze of 

the self. Like Lorenz’s ‘Butterfly Effect’ 

which proposed that one flap of a 

butterfly’s wings can change the weather 

forever; any matter of stimulus can alter 

and inform what we are to become. 

We are all in a constant state of flux or 

metamorphosis. Heraclitus argued that 

change was ubiquitous; "You cannot step 

into the same river twice”. So I can't tell 

you who I am, or who David Kim Whittaker 

is, or expect you to be able to offer me the 

same service. 

On the wall of the studio is a clipping 

of a photograph of nine year old Alice 

Liddell (The real girl who inspired 

Carroll’s classic). I ask David Kim why the 

picture sits there modestly enshrined. He 

explains; "there she is at the start of her 

life, innocent and clearly full of imagination 

and possibility, alive and looking back 

at you. But now she’s gone and the rest 

becomes a history almost lost; like a trail 

of vapour, but a whisper echos". Life and 

its transience is what David Kim grabs 

hold of; the paintings are a rabbit hole, 

which can always be escaped into. 

Metamorphosis remains a theme within 

the work, but also in his life (the two are 

inextricably linked). Over the past 8 years, 

Whittaker has been in a state of physical 

and psychological development since an 

official diagnosis of gender dysphoria. 

Outside of his career as an artist, in the 

day-to-day, David Kim lives as ‘Kim’, a 

woman. Within the career David Kim is 

accepting and embracing of this ‘trans’ 

state. It is what it is, neither or both, 

and explicitly provides an invaluable 

universal overarching context to the work. 

I emphasize universal, it is important to 

do so, as these paintings are for, and of, 

all of us. Whittaker’s complexity, integrity 

and fearlessness offer a distinctive and 

original voice. As Friedrich Nietzsche 

wrote in ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra: A Book 

for All and None’; “One must still have 

chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to 

a dancing star”. 

These paintings, primarily of the head, 

illustrate a generic duality confined within 

the human condition, both the physical 

and the emotional manifested. Primal, 

archetypal male attributes transcend into 

a feminine space. This fusion informs us 

and allows us to contemplate our species 

achievement and development. All our 

complexity. Whittaker describes his 

studio trials as an endless artistic search 

12

“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star” 

Friedrich Nietzsche 

for something as yet unseen where the 

works are born from moments of intense 

creativity, where they are pushed as 

far as possible. He finds the window 

to capture the image "relatively short 

before it disappears into itself". Moments 

of darkness and joy, from the cradle to 

the grave. The weeping, the brave face. 

The unpredictable nature of being. The 

complexities of gender. Thought and 

emotion, personal and universal; this is 

what David Whittaker describes as "the 

rapture of life". 

The studio is awash with iconic imagery 

which acts as stimulus to feed the soul 

and combines to create an inner sanctum. 

The space is an echo of the minds eye, 

yet there is always a sense of the world 

outside as his studio hovers in a former 

industrial office space over what he once 

described to me as "the scum ridden 

streets of Newquay", a typical weathered 

seaside town, in the far west of England. 

There is a sense of an embracing of this 

literal ‘inner’ and ‘outer’ duality in the 

mark making, a celebration that perhaps 

the self-expressions that we see on the 

streets; the tattoos on flesh and vestiges 

from spray cans and marker pens run 

parallel to the marks made by alternative 

civilizations on indigenous tribal skin, 

in rococo sgraffito and scratched on to 

primeval cave walls. That we are merely 

another tribe paying homage to our 

past, recording our present and casting 

an echo in to the future through the 

markings that we make. All expressions 

of our uniquely human, universal story 

and as Georg Hegel once said it “World 

history is the record of the minds effort to 

understand itself”. 

Our experience of existence is where the 

'inner' and the 'outer' world collide. Where 

the messy web of all that envelopes us, 

smothering and comforting, tearing 

and stroking takes place. The 'self' is 

the canvas placed at the centre of this 

universal battle. This discord saturates 

the work and is represented in part 

through fine, intricate representational 

painting alongside erratic, gestural, 

impasto, often violent mark making. 

These differing techniques denote 

conflict but also manifest a place where 

fusion and harmony exist. We get to feel 

the blurring, celebratory and melancholic 

power of memory, the moments that aid 

transcendence and at the same time hint 

at our primal constituent. There are ghostly 

images of places once visited or perhaps 

13

“World history is the record of the minds effort to understand itself” 

Georg Hegel 

seen third hand in a picture, scraps of 

paper torn from journals once read; a story 

that may have moved or merely caught 

peripheral attention. This clinging to things 

that nourish our senses aknowledges that 

our influences and experiences become 

part of the fabric of who we are, fusing with 

our DNA. These abstracted, fragmented, 

human heads act as two way mirrors; a 

life’s moment as a small reflection on the 

whole of humanity. 

Works are often underpinned by delicate 

drawing created through repetitive 

‘prayer-like' scrawling and stenciling 

of found abandoned objects; lost keys, 

dropped coins and trinkets. Lives are 

traced through this discarded ephemera. 

A watermark is created that spirals 

outwards, as fluid patterns flow across 

the board. Cellular, bodily; molecular 

and cosmic. Both chaotic and intricate. 

Individual lost stories of the mundane and 

the weighty are showcased in these works; 

triviality and reverie collide with loss and 

suffering, fragility and thoughts of escape. 

The paintings are heavy, romantic, and 

sometimes tragic, whilst still remaining 

comfortingly prosaic. Through this sharing 

we are propositioned to contemplate that 

we may be isolated but we are not alone. 

I am so proud to have witnessed first 

hand the development of this phenomenal 

and phenomenological artist. David Kim 

Whittaker’s ambition has been to make 

something monumental about the human 

condition that has not been seen before. 

To make paintings that lay down a marker 

or send out an echo of this life, reflecting 

some of the messiness of existence 

alongside inner utopian desire and 

potential. I’ve seen first hand that making 

work has helped Whittaker to come to 

terms with his own existence. An essence 

has been captured that will forever remain 

a window for others to peer through, and 

in the reflection of these panels, perhaps 

you will catch a glimpse of yourself. 

Joseph Clarke is an independent curator, 

writer, film maker and gallery director. He 

has curated in excess of 100 exhibitions 

over a twenty year period, working with 

international artists in all media. 

14

THIS MIRROR 


Everyday before I go to the studio I step 

into my local corner shop to pick up 

supplies; drinks, nutri-grain bars etc, 

and gaze over the front covers of the 

newspapers. All the trouble and woe is 

there in front of me. Another soldier dies, 

a murder, a young girl bullied throws 

herself in front of a train. All this seeps 

out and into the work I make. For me it’s 

a way through. To find liberation. “To 

slither along the edge of a straight razor 

and survive” is what Colonel Kurtz said. 

It’s what we are all doing anyway in our 

working week, in our homes, in our beds 

and every time we look in the mirror. 

see the intrinsic elements that carousel 

the species in the great circus of humanity. 

I’m always touched by moments of pure 

love, of unpaid charity - funny how a little 

thing can change the complete course 

of a life so much. I’ve always found it 

an incredible thing when people come 

together, meet a partner, marry, fall totally 

in love with each other, give away all their 

internal secrets, are there for each other 

for many years and then they suddenly 

part, hating each other and fighting over 

money and material things. “War is love, 

when love wears down” The Blue Nile 

once sang. 

To be in the existence is a powerful thing. 

This goes through my mind most days. 

Since losing Mum it has come home to me 

that the things that you love dear, do one 

day depart. I like to think that I could live 

for a thousand years, almost immortal. If 

I could press that button I would. What 

an incredible thing to live through all 

the centuries to come, trying not to lose 

one's head. 

In my work, I see things mostly in a primal 

way. I strip away the clothes, the flesh and 

The world is such a fast moving place, 

bombarded with imagery, things to buy; 

the eyes see, the brain computes and it 

filters into the heart and soul and all the 

human matter that becomes us. What do 

I need? What don’t I need? How much 

do I have? Always back to the material. 

So corruptible. 

I am struck when people’s struggles mean 

that they can no longer cope and they go 

on to end it all by taking their own lives. To 

go and never come back for all eternity; 

18

what a powerful thing it is to be gone like 

that. Leaving your little moment behind to 

a letter, a book, a movie, a photograph, 

a record, a child. But do we come back 

to re-live the existence again? Does the 

spirit and orb inherit new organic vessels? 

The Frankenstein shock moment. 

The head, a portrait in constant transition. 

I can remember as a child wearing my 

mothers make-up and glancing in to the 

mirror and seeing a little girl look back. A 

powerful thing that has stayed with me in 

to adult life, that we don’t have to be what 

we were born to be. It’s all there in the 

face; that primal thing. The first thing we 

make contact with in the street, the bar, 

the great rooms of silence. The head is 

a flower on a human stem that weathers 

the world in a field of chaos and chance. 

To be and to look; to experience. Filling 

the theatre of the mind, the great picture 

house of the head. A powerful thing we 

are. Romanticized and war torn. Walk with 

me now John (Constable), take the hand 

of a self-taught, take me in to the glittering 

rain soaked fields, to the canvases that 

became legend. Seeping their way in to 

the material world of faded prints under 

glass topped tables where as a child I first 

discovered you. The chaos and the calm 

come together in a marriage of paint. The 

internal reflected landscape that we all 

exist in. Always. 

Theo once said to Vincent, “you have found 

your way, dear Brother, your carriage is 

already nearing its destination and can 

stand up to a good many knocks”. This 

is a carriage that most of us ride upon 

within our lives. It is a stony road my work 

has had to travel. Not easy; thirty years of 

trying and exploring, almost every day in 

the studio. You can’t extinguish a fire that 

burns the sea. 

My work is deeply affected by the ongoing 

universal events that the world vomits out 

every day, and in to my head it slushes 

with my blood and beating heart. Then 

comes the need to find that moment in a 

work that hunts out the viewer and freezes 

them in a pure moment of emotion and 

touches like a poem scratched behind 

their eyes. The goring of a matador; a 

bull fighting back; things turned on their 

head. A country threatens another; we 

will wipe you of the face of the Earth. 

19

“You can't extinguish a fire that burns the sea” 

David Kim Whittaker 

A gorilla saves a boy and the keeper 

shoots the beast. Earth Voyager on its 

distant journey sending images back that 

show our planet as a tiny blue ball set 

like a jewel within the black. We know so 

much, but still so much to learn. Bacon 

said “life is meaningless but we give it 

meaning in our lifetime”. It’s a crazy thing, 

us in all our genius and folly. 

We look into a mirror and a face looks 

back. Two personas appear in the making 

of the work. At the start, the sensitive 

watchmaker's daughter begins, like a 

quiet insect secreting watery colour over 

the surface; a classical representation. 

Once complete she drifts away and from 

the corner comes the primal gimp like a 

predator hunting pray, looking to close the 

deal. He begins with all the dirty washes, 

ejaculations of oil, vascular smears at 

speed, violent, shaking the work on its 

easel, flicking and then for a moment, 

delicate, it prances like a dancing 

animal, watching, never distracted until it 

is completed. 

by hand by the woodman next door. I 

remember just wanting to be brutal with 

them and not worry about the outcome; 

just roar with my basic materials. As they 

came together I was pleased with the 

results and, as is the case, they developed 

in to a larger family. A metamorphosis 

takes place; tadpole to frog, caterpillar to 

butterfly, boy to girl, girl to boy, classical 

to modern and the heads, the painting, 

this push and pull, goes on. They want to 

be a timeless moment, they want to talk; 

sometimes a whisper, sometimes a shout, 

about events past and ongoing. Fleeting 

comments on our massive industrial 

species in theatre, as witnessed by the 

inner and the outer eye. 

When starting a body of new works last 

year I had six crude wooden panels cut 

This text is amalgamated from notes taken 

from David Kim Whittaker's studio, 2017. 

20

'I' IS A LANDSCAPE 

DAVID ROSENBERG 

The first time I met with David (I, 

myself, am called David), things moved 

surprisingly fast during our conversation. 

There were no barriers of any kind and 

we seemed to be able to easily discuss 

all and everything. David told me he was 

aware of some of his past-lives. He was 

also sensing and measuring the deep 

impact of several childhood memories, 

especially one. As a young boy, he used to 

kneel down and bend over a small coffee 

table covered by a glass under which one 

could find a reproduction of a classical 

English landscape. David was continually 

fascinated. He absorbed himself in the 

image, following with his fingers the lines 

and contours. Meanwhile a unique optic 

and psychological phenomenon occurred; 

he could see his own shadow reflected 

on the surface of the glass, but instead 

of perceiving his face as one would do 

in a mirror, the inside of his head was 

filled with the image of the landscape. 

Just take a look at his paintings and you’ll 

understand precisely how this works. 

Everything falls into place during one 

mundane and almost unnoticeable event. 

If you add to the equation the extreme 

sensitivity of the artist and his ability 

to deconstruct every image, including 

his own image, you can get a simple 

sense of where David’s artistic quest or 

journey originates. 

Through the mirror… 

Turmoil on the flat surface of the painting, 

inner and outer dimensions merge, as 

well as the landscape and portrait genre 

becoming one. Others and I meet and 

exchange momentary and definitive 

identities and / or viewpoints. 

We can recall the work of Lewis Carroll, 

Oscar Wilde's 'The Picture of Dorian 

Gray', or John Constable and Thomas 

Gainsborough (just think of his 'Blue 

Boy' which the artist may have painted 

in response to the then absurd dogma 

which aimed at restricting the use of blue 

tones to the depiction of distant parts of 

the background landscape). There are 

also some remembrances of Frank 

Auerbach’s ‘impasto' and Francis Bacon’s 

(de)construction of space. In a nutshell 

David is a deep rooted, genuine British 

painter; living and working in his native 

24

Cornwall, a county which encompasses a 

long artistic and pictorial tradition, which 

David brilliantly takes to the next level. 

Serene and violent at the same time. 

David is also Kim. He now evokes freely 

what is described as 'gender dysphoria', an 

intense experience where one’s physical 

body does not match his or her deep 

identity. This might have brought extreme 

psychological tension or inner conflict, 

but inside David Kim, there is enough 

empathy, enough acceptance and space 

for contradictions to express and resolve 

themselves. Perhaps this is because: 

'I' is a landscape. 

David Rosenberg is a French curator 

and author specialising in modern and 

contemporary art. His work has explored 

relationships between art and diverse 

fields from contemporary dance, history 

of science and comic strips. Since 1989, 

he has curated exhibitions in collaboration 

with numerous international museums and 

art foundations. 

25

WORKS 

JOURNEYS OF HOPE & DESPAIR 

An exodus 

Sustain hope, seek salvation 

Searching for the road from Damascus moment

Portrait For Human Presence I 

oil, acrylic, collage and pencil on primed wood panel . 92 x 92 cm 

30

Portrait For Human Presence II 


31

Portrait For Human Presence III 


32

Portrait For Human Presence IV 


33

Portrait For Human Presence V (Station Of Animal) 


34

Portrait For Human Presence VI (Asilanom) 


35

Portrait For Human Presence VII (The Displaced I) 


36

Portrait For Human Presence VIII (The Displaced II) 


37

Portrait For Human Presence IX (Dawn Of The Dying Cities) 


38

Portrait For Human Presence X (Young Epilogue) 


39

Portrait For Human Presence XI (Upon This Earth) 


40

Portrait For Human Presence XII (Maximum In Life Not Death) 


41

PERPETUAL SIN 

Mankind in conflict 

A primal urge to tear apart 

Power and greed cast long shadows 

Sacrificing the sacred 

Divinity is lost

Monomatherbeth 


44

Stay Above 


45

Under A Blue Hat 


46

Force Majeure 


47

48

The Lament 

oil and acrylic on canvas . 122 x 122 cm each (triptych) 

49

50

Hallucinating Soldier 


51

52

The Great Grey Mothers I 


53

54

The Great Grey Mothers II 


55

RESTLESS SPIRIT 

History leaves traces that echo for an eternity

Priest Moving Towards 

oil and acrylic on canvas . 122 x 122 cm 

58

59

60

Priest In Preparation 


61

Priest After Exorcism 


62

63

64

Nexus Of Love X 


65

Father X (Watching For Classical Sunlight / Notre-Dame) 


66

67

68

Ghost Impala 


69

The Way 


70

71

72

Fowlers in the Fields 


73

Inherent Eroticism In All Transformations 


74

75

Working Hard In The Golden Month, Provence (Male) 


76

Working Hard In The Golden Month, Provence (Female) 


77

TRANSCENDENT METAMORPHOSIS 

We will continue to evolve

An Under Beauty 

oil, acrylic and pencil on primed wood panel . 92 x 92 cm 

80

Baboon 


81

Born Figurine 


82

Carriage Of A Turning Bull 


83

The History That Shows Us Is The History That Grows Us 


84

Gender Reversals 


85

THE FEMININE OPPRESSED 

Boys and girls are not always born equal

Girls Of The Sierra Leone I 


88

Girls Of The Sierra Leone II 


89

Girls Of The Sierra Leone III 


90

Girls Of The Sierra Leone IV 


91

Hallucinating Girls From Africa I (Search In The Herds Of Life But It Is Within Your Heart ) 


92

Hallucinating Girls From Africa II (The Doses) 


93

Hallucinating Girls From Africa III (Black Wings) 


94

Hallucinating Girls From Africa IV (The Future Is Not Set) 


95

TALES OF SOLITUDE 

Conversations overheard from distant tables 

Life alone in the city

The Man Portrait From Window (Kings Cross) 


98

Soho You Pretty Things (Study for Female Dancer, London) 


99

It's About Making Your Peace With The Existence (Alcoholic Talking To A Priest In A London Pub) 


100

Lucifer Landing (Young Male Dressing As A Girl For The First Time, London) 


101

The Endureth (Prisoner Of The Wilderness Visiting Paget Memorial Mission Hall, London) 


102

Recording The Silent At Their Hour (From Middlesex Hospital Chapel To London Zoo) 


103

A BOYS SEARCH 

The grinding gears of the heavy locomotive 

Masculine echoes 

Not all sons follow the footsteps of their fathers

106

Boys In The Outskirts (Dressing The Passions) 


107

108

Boys In The Outskirts (Howlers Waltzers) 


109

FLEETING UTOPIAS 

The inner and the outer combine in rapture 

In this moment I am England 

I am home

To Compose England (Rydal Mount, Cumbria, Hume’s Warbler) 


112

113

114

Such Unquestioning Faith (Salisbury Cathedral, Robin) 


115

In The Splendour (Buckinghamshire, Lesser Redpoll) 


116

117

118

Crucifixion (Mapledurham) 


119

Crucifixion (Lancaster Canal) 


120

121

122

Crucifixion (Stourhead) 


123

Jewel Box (The Broads, A Young Girl in Reflection, Poetics Of The Past Never Forgotten) 


124

125

Soldier Before Combat Leave (Rotton Park Reservoir, Birmingham) 


126

Soldier After Combat, Back to England (River At Mayton Bridge) 


127

Soldier Ghost Dancing Back To Loved Ones 


128

The Hassars I (Corfe Castle, Isle Of Purbeck, Dorset, England) 


129

The Hassars II (The Little Bridge, Crickheath, England) 


130

The Hassars III (Durham Cathedral, River Wear, England) 


131

GENDER FLUX 

A drawn watermark beneath the surface 

Stencilling trinkets lost and discarded 

A weaving prayer 

A chemical flow of genders combined and moving together 

This is the universal

She Dreams The Night Before Surgery 

oil, acrylic, collage, china marker and pencil on primed panel . 80 x 80 cm 

134

Transexual Locomotives Of The Ape Cloth (Isambard Kingdom Brunel) 


135

Boy Ascends 


136

Fluffer Of Angel 


137

Beauties Form The Beast Towards English Lanes And Fairground Rides In The Rain 


138

Calling Towards The Mandrills 


139

Distant Calls Of The Zoological Gardens (As I Gaze At You Through The Railings) 


140

From The Grey Room 


141

Rage Again My Love 


142

Saddest Intro 


143

CONVERSING WITH HEROES 

Across an imagined table we meet 

Sharing tea 

Sat under the canopy of natures great pavilion

From The Modern Pavilions (Mark Lawson) 

oil, acrylic and pencil on canvas . 122 x 122 cm 

146

147

From The Modern Pavilions (Dr Lucy Worsley) 


148

From The Modern Pavilions (Dan Cruickshank) 


149

MEMORIALS TO THE FALLEN 

For the lost souls 

Move beyond your tragedy and ascend 

You are no longer alone

The Ascending I 


152

153

154

The Ascending II 


155

BIOGRAPHY 

B. 1964 

David Kim Whittaker was born and lives in Cornwall, England 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 

2017 A Portrait for Human Presence: 

Fondazione Mudima, Milan, Italy 

In The Existence, Opera Gallery, Paris, France 

2015 Portrait for Human Presence, Anima-Mundi, St. Ives, England 

Glimpse, London, England 

2014 Nature of the Life Pavilions, Millennium, St Ives, England 

2012 A Bird In The Mammal House, Millennium, St Ives, England 

2011 A Beautiful Kind of Certainty, Millennium, St Ives, England 

2009 Brief Moment In The Exposure, Millennium, St Ives, England 

2008 If This Life, Goldfish, Penzance, England 

2001 Gallery Excalibur, Stresa, Italy 

2000 Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall, England 

1992 Hyde Park Gallery, London, England 

2011 The Lock Up 2, Red Bull Studios, London,England 

2010 The House of Fairy Tales, Millennium, St. Ives, England 

2009 The Lock Up, Eastcastle House, London, England 

Mixed, Millennium & Goldfish, Cornwall, England 

NSA at Royal West of England Academy, Bristol, England 

2008 Mixed / No Theme, Goldfish, Penzance, England 

2007 Goldfish, Penzance, England 

Move, Goldfish at Vyner Street, London, England 

2005 RA Summer Exhibition, Piccadilly, London, England 

2004 The Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, England 

2003 Debut, Gallery One O Two, London, England 

St. Ives Festival, The Mariners Gallery, St. Ives, England 

2002 Show for Reuters, Britart, Brick Lane, London, England 

2000 One Foot Two Show, Mafuji Gallery, London, England 

1999 Summer Show, Wimbledon Art Group, London, England 

Raw Art, London, England 

New Millennium Gallery, St. Ives, England 

1998 Highgate Fine Art, London, Endland 

1994 Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, California, USA 

1993 Salthouse Gallery, St. Ives, England 

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 

2016 Opera Gallery, Worldwide 

From Silence, Herrick Gallery, Mayfair, London, England 

2015 Anima-Mundi, St. Ives, England 

The Lock Up, London, England 

ART15, Olympia Grand, London, England 

2014 Suspended Sentences, Turners Warehouse, Newlyn, England 

I, Truro Festival, England 

ART14, Olympia Grand, London, England 

Millennium, St Ives, England 

2013 Artists Make Faces, Plymouth City Art Gallery, England: 

(Curated by Monica Kinley OBE) 

Millennium, St. Ives, England 

The Lock Up 3, The Ivy, London, England 

2012 Millennium, St Ives, England 

2011 The National Open (Major First Prize Winner): 

Pallant House, Chichester, England 

The Discerning Eye (invited artist), Mall Galleries, London, England 

Millennium, St Ives, England 

2017 A Portrait for Human Presence (Fondazione Mudima) 

In the Existence (Opera Gallery) 

2014 Nature of the Life Pavilions (Millennium) 

2012 Bird In The Mammal House (Millennium) 

2011 A Beautiful Kind of Certainty (Millennium) 

2009 Brief Moment In The Exposure (Millennium) 

2008 If This Life (Goldfish) 

2007 Move (Goldfish) 

2006 Dictionary of Artists in Britain since 1945, David Buckman 

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS 

Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall, England 

Plymouth City Museum & Art Gallery, Devon, England 

Represented by Opera Gallery, Worldwide 

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A PORTRAIT FOR HUMAN PRESENCE

portrait for human presence book

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