David Gardner (born 1987, Newcastle upon Tyne. Lives and works in London, UK) completed the postgraduate Drawing Year at the Royal Drawing School in 2019, having previously studied fashion design at Central Saint Martins, UAL. Gardner creates figurative paintings and drawings with a focused interrogation on his own body and its relationship to spaces, both real and imagined. The body is always half concealed / half revealed, emerging behind flora, fences or veils. The images are staged to slowly reveal themselves, initiating an act of looking, one where the gaze must penetrate a boundary, a threshold, a gateway through and into the picture plane. Colour is a core anchor in Gardner’s imagery, often very vibrant and glowing as if lit from within, radiating from the inside-out towards the viewer. Gardner recently won the ACS Studio Prize and completed the residency programme at Palazzo Monti, Italy. His work is in prominent collections including the V&A, the Royal Collection and private collections in Africa, Europe and USA.