David Gates designs and makes “striking pieces of three-dimensional art, inspired by, but not delimited by the idea of cabinet furniture.” (Emma Crichton Miller, Crafts Sep/Oct 2017).
David’s work is exhibited and collected internationally. He received a Gold Award at the Cheongju Bienalle 2015 and was a winner of the Jerwood Contemporary Makers 2010. His work is held by the Nasjonelmuseet, Oslo and the collection of the UK Crafts Council. David combines studio work with formal research and holds a PhD by thesis from King’s College London having researched the use of talk in makers’ practices. David has recently moved to rural Somerset from his birth city, London to more fully integrate working and living. His work is centrally concerned with how furniture, as a contextually-entwined sculptural entity is connected to the objects it contains and the space is is situated in. His recurring motif is the collecting cabinet; the cabinet of curiosities.
His work has a relationship with agricultural and industrial architecture. Once finding these forms and structures along stretches of the River Thames and its estuarine landscape David’s work is finding new but analogous alignments and resonances with the silos, barns, sheds, and pylons of his new working context; an approach presaged with the work made for David Gates in Dialogue at Make Hauser and Wirth in 2019.
David welcomes invitations to exhibit his work and enquiries to discuss commissions.
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Education
PhD research 2008 - 2017
Thesis title: The Makers’ Tongue: Small Stories of Positioning and Performance in the Situated Discourses of Contemporary Crafts Practitioners.
King’s College London. Supervisors: Alexandra Georgakopoulou, Professor of Discourse Analysis and Sociolinguistics and Celia Roberts, Professor of Applied Linguistics.
Thesis available to download here.
1985 – 1988 BA hons. Furniture and Product Design, Ravensbourne College of Art and Design.
1984 – 1985 Art Foundation Course Diploma, Ravensbourne College of Art and Design.
Selected exhibitions
2022 Of Making and Materials. Make Hauser and Wirth Southampton NY.
2022 Beyond Nature Hauser and Wirth Savile Row London.
2022 M2 Artists Recent Work. ASC Gallery London.
2022 Art Geneve, Switzerland. Taste Contemporary.
2021 Odd and Even: A Collection. Maison Louis Carre, Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, France. Taste Contemporary.
2020 With Make Hauser + Wirth at Hauser + Wirth, Savile Row, London.
2019 David Gates in dialogue. Make Hauser + Wirth, Somerset, UK.
2019 Sightlines. Stroud Museum in the Park.
2019 Scorched. Fitzrovia Chapel, London.
2019 Collect, London.
2018 With Other Eyes. Ruthin Craft Centre and touring.
2018 In Search of the Vernacular. Oriel Myrddin and touring.
2018 Masterpiece, London.
2018 Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London.
2017 Cheongju Bienalle, South Korea with The British Council.
2017 The Salon. New York.
2017 Design Miami/Basel. Basel
2017 Collect, Gallery Spotlight; new work with Helen Carnac. Sarah Myerscough Gallery.
2016 PAD London Sarah Myerscough Gallery
2015 Cheongju Biennale, South Korea. Gallery LVS
2015 Collect, London. Sarah Myerscough Gallery.
2015 Methods of Making. National Centre for Craft and Design.
2015 Art Geneve. Sarah Myerscough Gallery.
2015 Crafting Anatomies, Bonnington Galleries, Nottingham Trent University.
2014 On Display, Sarah Myerscough Gallery, London. London Design Festival.
2014 Collect, Saatchi Gallery, London. With Contemporary Applied Arts.
2013 Beauty is the First Test. National Centre for Craft and Design, and touring nationally.
2013 St Mungo’s/Woodworks project: A Design Process. London Design Festival, Victoria & Albert Museum.
2012 The Tool at Hand. Milwaukee Art Museum. Wisconsin, USA. (Reviewed: Journal of Modern Craft vol 5 issue 3 pp351-4.) Touring USA 2013-14, Philadelphia, Houston, and Portland.
2012 Tankerekker. Telemark Kunsterersenter, Norway. Solo show.
2012 Pairings 2 Stroud International Textiles. Site-specific installation with Alice Kettle and Jane Webb at The Museum in the Park.
2011 Loop, Intelligent Trouble. Contemporary Applied Arts, London. Participation and group curation.
2011 Collect at the Saatchi Gallery, London, with New Brewery Arts.
2011 HOST, Velvet da Vinci, San Francisco. Curation and participation, an installation of collaborative making.
2010 Intelligent Trouble, Under The Counter, Jewellery in Conversation
Smiths Row Gallery, Bury St Edmunds. Publication in preparation.
2010 Pairings - A Conversation. Manchester Metropolitan University and touring nationally, Catalogued ISBN 10-1905476531.
2010 Starting Points. Site-specific installation of two works 100 Legs and Liquorice Straps. Siobhan Davies Studios, London. (Reviewed: Journal of Craft Research volume 2 pp161-5).
2010 Jerwood Contemporary Makers, Jerwood Space, London, and touring to March 2011 Naughton Gallery Belfast, Innovative Crafts Edinburgh and National Gallery of Craft, Kilkenny, Eire
2010 Intelligent Trouble; A Curious Exchange. Contemporary Applied Arts, London. Participation and group curation
2009-2011 Taking Time; Craft and the Slow Revolution.Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery and touring,Reviewed: Journal of Modern Craft volume 3 issue 3 pp373-5.
Catalogued ISBN 978-0-9526832-9-2
2009 In Transit, Munich.
2008 Focus, Contemporary Applied Arts, London.
2007 Collect , Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
2003 Helen Carnac and David Gates, Flow Gallery, London.
2002 Still , Applied Arts Agency, London.
2001 St Pancras Chambers, Grand Midland Hotel, London
2000 Sotheby’s Contemporary Crafts, London, collaboration with Hikaru Noguchi
1999 Innerspace, The Orangery, Holland Park. London.
Authoring of refereed conference papers and book chapters
Book chapters.
From In Our Houses to The Tool at Hand: Breaching Normal Procedural Conditions in Studio Furniture Making. In Marchand, T. (Ed) 2016 Craft as Problem Solving. Pp115-132 Ashgate.
History in the Making; the use of talk in inter-disciplinary contemporary craft collaborative practice. In Sandino, L. & Partington, M. (eds) 2013. Oral History in The Visual Arts. Pp 55-66. Bloomsbury.
Triangulation: Working Toward a Practice of Collaboration. Co-authored with Kettle, A. & Webb, J. In Collaboration Through Craft. Ravetz, A. Kettle, A. & Felcey, H. (eds.) (2013) pp 45-58. Bloomsbury. The Trouble With Verbs. In The Tool at Hand, Catalogue. 2013. Chipstone Foundation.
Refereed conference papers.
Locally-made identities: Interactional positioning in the small stories and counter narratives of a group of crafts practitioners.'Discourse: Multidisciplinary Perspectives symposium' The English Language & Linguistics group at the University of Sussex. 18th November 2016.
"Meaning Making in the Moment: Small Stories-in-interaction Enabling Critical Reflection". To Think is to Experiment symposium, Centre for Narrative Research, University of East London. April 29th 2015.
“Stories From The Workshop: Communicative Practices Amongst Craft Practitioners”. Making Futures Conference, Plymouth College of Art September 26th-27th 2013. Published in online journal of proceedings: plymouthart.ac.uk/research/journalvol3/david-gates-stories-from-the-workshop-communicative-practices-amongst-craft
“History in the Making; the use of talk in inter-disciplinary contemporary craft collaborative practice.” Oral History Society conference, Victoria & Albert Museum, 2nd-3rd July 2010.
“Sweepings; talk in inter-disciplinary collaborative craft practice” Pairings conference, Manchester Metropolitan University. May 2011.
“Triangulation Theory.” A paper written collaboratively with Alice Kettle and Dr Jane Webb. Pairings conference, Manchester Metropolitan University. May 2011. Published in Collaboration Through Craft, 2013, Berg.
“Lost For Words; Developments in a New Language.” New Craft Future Voices, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design. July 4th-6th 2007.
ISBN 1 899837 55 8 pp256-262.
Subject of peer review and critical writing.
‘The Journal of Modern Craft’, vol 5 issue 3 Oct 2012 pp351-354. Exhibition review; The Tool at Hand, Milwaukee Art Museum. Jennifer Geigel Mikulay.
‘The Journal of Craft Research’, vol 2, April 2011, pp161-. Exhibition review; 60/40 Starting Points Series 2010, Siobhan Davies Studios, Heidi Yeo.
‘The Journal of Modern Craft’, vol 3 no.3 Nov. 2010 pp373-5. Exhibition review, Taking Time; Craft and the Slow Revolution, Martina Margetts.
‘Studio; Craft and Design in Canada’, Fall/Winter 2010, pp38-42, ‘Making Time’
‘Perspectives’, Sept. 2010, pp60-62 ‘Playing With Time’
Work held in collections.
Nasjonalmuseet for Kunst, Arkitektur og Design, Oslo, Norway. Silo; a collecting cabinet.
Crafts Council Collection, UK. Perpetually Ajar II
Cheongju biennale collection. Perpetually Ajar.
Nationally/Internationally Recognised Awards
2019 Winner of Bespoke category. Wood Awards.
2015 Gold Award at the Cheongju Biennale, South Korea for the piece Perpetually Ajar.
2015 Perpetually Ajar and From Greenwich to The Barrier both shortlisted for The Wood Awards.
2011 Winner, Wesley Barrell Craft Award for Established Makers.
2010 Winner, Jerwood Award for Contemporary Making.
2006 Wesley Barrell Craft Award for Established Makers, highly commended runner-up.
1988 New Designers. Winner of lighting design award.
1988 Awarded Royal Society of Arts and Department of Trade and Industry Bursary.
Selected Public Commissions
2011-12, North Cotswolds Community Hospital. Memory Assets. Permanent installation of a series of artworks. Commissioned by NHS Gloucestershire.
2007, Paget School, Birmingham. Design and make furniture for an inter-disciplinary reconfiguration of part of the school building collaborating with architectural, metal and colour specialists. A Creative Partnerships project with Craftspace.
2006, St. Botolphs church Aldgate, London. Design and production/installation of display system for ‘Heirlooms” exhibition.
2005, Bilston Craft Gallery, Wolverhampton. Design and making of nine pieces of furniture for the Craftsense permanent collection including a reading table and benches for a newly created public area. This was a collaboration with artist Helen Carnac.
2003-20015, St. Giles church, Farnborough, Kent. Grade II listed building largely dating from the middle-ages. Design and making and installation of extensive cabinetwork and fittings to two vestries, altar frontal chest, choir materials storage. Commissioned by the diocese of Rochester.
2002, University of Westminster, School of the Built Environment.
Boardroom furniture: table, credenzas and chairs designed with John Miller and manufactured by myself.
Lecturing and Teaching
Sept 2002- 2011, London Metropolitan University, Senior Lecturer 0.5 fractional, 3D Design and Craft. Course organiser 2002-05 for the BA(hons) programme. Module leader and supervisor across modules in studio design, workshop practice and contextual and theoretical studies at BA, MA, and FdA levels. Wrote course materials including writing and launching new courses.
Various periods of teaching have been undertaken at Camberwell College of Art, Ravensbourne College of Design, Central Saint Martins, University of East London.