The exhibition consists of etchings, woodcuts, and monoprints, all of which were created at the Pace Editions Ink Workshop in NYC and published by Pace Editions, Inc.
David Bates images reflect the iconography of his Texas surroundings. He employs the use of heavy energetic lines with distinctive and brash colors creating expressionistic images that explode in vibrancy and power. The images in this exhibition document his world - at home in his garden or at a wildlife preserve on the Texas Gulf Coast. The work is autobiographical, expressive, naïve, but highly sophisticated at the same time with its roots in modernism.
Bates is recognized primarily as a painter. His first print project began at Pace Editions in 2007. Working in our print workshop with experienced printers gave Bates the opportunity to explore possibilities in the print medium. His was an easy and successful transition from painter to printmaker. The first project, “White Roses” was a thirteen block woodcut in which he combined his signature black outlines with vibrant colors to create a rich, beautiful, and dynamic woodcut. Subsequently, he has gone on to create an additional woodcut, "Sunflowers" three new etchings, and a series of monoprints in his distinctive style.
Bates has work in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Art, the Phoenix Art Museum and the Dallas Museum of Art and others. He is highly revered in his home state of Texas. His work is less known to New York audiences even though he has been included in the Whitney Biennial and has exhibited at the Charles Cowles Gallery and DC Moore in New York. His unique works are represented in New York by the DC Moore Gallery, in San Francisco by the John Berggruen Gallery, and in Dallas, Texas by Dunn & Brown Contemporary.