Dave Nelson

About

Dave Nelson transforms found domestic objects; crockery, kitchen utensils, ironing boards, armchairs, and dining chairs. He animates them through sorting, disassembly and reassembly, position and colour. For example in Dharma Bum, a vintage rucksack is set against a solid pink wall. The title references the Jack Kerouac novel, whose heroes are individuals who embrace a nomadic lifestyle, traveling lightly with only essential belongings carried in a backpack. They reject materialism and conventional societal norms, instead prioritising experiences, freedom, and a connection to nature.

In Who are you? …… and what do you say?, his work for the RCA degree show, he took crockery from house clearance sales and activated these familiar yet often overlooked things by classifying them, displaying them on vintage Formica kitchen tables, on the floor or on shelves. There is a delicate background of colour, either on the table-tops or on the wall. This approach emphasises the unaltered state of the objects, while drawing attention to their emotional weight. They are ordered according to emotional, physical, functional, aesthetic and temporal registers, in a codex of infinite sorting.

Nelson’s practice allows meditation on the intimate relationship between objects and the human psyche, illuminating how our attachments to things shape our existential and social experience. It prompts contemplation on the significance of material possessions, their journey from utility to relic and the enduring imprint of the past on the present, leading to the consideration of broader societal themes, such as consumerism, materialism, the cycle of acquisition and disposal and the environmental impact of our consumption habits.

Nelson has exhibited regularly. Highlights include the RCA2024 Degree show, Model Village II at wip Studios (2024), Turps Banana Leavers show (2023), Recreational Grounds VII (2023), Blink 3 at Safehouse Peckham (2023), In formation at Thames-side Gallery (2022), In Response at Nunnery Gallery (2021) and The Poetics of Place at University of Herts Gallery (2020).  He appeared on Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year in 2017.

He lives in St. Albans and works in London.