Mixed media on canvas

165cm x 200cm

About the artwork:

Growing up in Australia's North West in the 1970s, I absorbed a landscape of extremes. Raw light, vast silence, heat that distorts the horizon, that intensity has never left me. These large-scale mixed media works are an attempt to hold that energy and memory. Each painting is built rather than planned. I work in layers of acrylic, oil, spray paint, mark-making, allowing earlier decisions to bleed through later ones. Colour is my primary language, not as decoration, but as emotional pressure. A deep cobalt can feel like held breath. A raw orange carries the shock of sudden heat. In the more gestural works I push colours into relationships: pink against red, yellow against navy, green against rust. What ever I can find. In the line works, the colour shifts are more subtle. Earth tones warming into blush and teal into shadow. I am less interested in resolution than in honesty. These paintings do not conclude, they accumulate, overlap, contradict. My hope is that standing before one of these works, a viewer finds not my story, but an opportunity for their own.

About the artist:

David Spencer is a compelling contemporary artist whose work explores the depths of human emotion on with striking authenticity. Growing up in Australia’s North West during the 1970s, he draws from personal experience to create art that is both introspective and universally resonant. His rising prominence is reflected in recent accolades, including being finalist for the Minnawarra Art Awards (2026), City of Stirling Art Award (2025), National Contemporary Art Prize (2024), the Mid West Art Prize (2023) and Perth Royal Art Prize (2022).

With a prolific career spanning 18 solo exhibitions and over 60 group shows, Spencer has established himself as a dynamic and dedicated creative voice. Beyond the canvas, his practice encompasses public art installations, commercial collaborations, and creative consultancy, showcasing his adaptability across disciplines.