David Konigsberg

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Flyers

Skip, 2011

Flyers Over Venice, 2007

2013 Paintings

Swim, 9 AM, 2013	Breakfast, 2013	Tea, Paper, 2013
Smoke, 2013

Landscapes

Passing Shower, 2011	Attack of the Reds, 2009	Broad Field, 2008
House Along the Way #2, 2010	Cumulus, 2010	Cherry Trees, 2010

Still Lifes

Coffee, 2011	Pitcher, 2012	Ebenezer Whites, 2010
Morning Paper, 2011	Goldfish, 2010

Artist Statement

David Konigsberg is a conceptual realist whose work has been shown in galleries and public art spaces throughout the United States.  For this show, he has painted two distinct, yet contrasting, series: large paintings focused on small, intimate details of daily life, and small paintings of the Hudson Valley's dramatic (and increasingly vulnerable) landscape.   A supporter of (and frequent volunteer for) the Columbia Land Conservancy, Konigsberg was born in rural Pennsylvania now divides his time between Brooklyn and Ghent.  This year, he will continue his practice of donating 10% of all his proceeds from the show to the Land Conservancy's efforts to preserve open space. 

Artist Bio

David Konigsberg

solo Exhibitions

~ Allen Sheppard, NYC

                Recent Work (2009)

                Recent Work (2007)

Overland (2005)

                Jump (2004)

                At Rest/In Motion (2002)

~ Kenise Barnes, Larchmont NY

                Largo Arenula, (2008)

~ Fetherston Gallery, Seattle

                Recent Work (2008)

                Recent Work (2006)

Recent Work(2004)

Recent Work (2003)

The Crossing (2002)

~ Weber Fine Art, Scarsdale NY

                Recent Work (2004)

Recent Work (2003)

Selected Two-Person and Group Shows

~ Kenise Barnes, Larchmont NY

                Another Fine Day, January, 2007

~ Carrie Haddad, Hudson NY

New Work (2010, 2008)

Almost Real, 2006

~ Fetherston Gallery (2009)

~ The Painting Center, NYC, Grand Allusions (2006)

~ Hofstra Museum, Hempstead NY, Where the Island Begins, curator and participant (2004)

~ Santa Monica Museum, Santa Monica CA, FreshstART (2004,2005)

~ Weber Fine Art, Chatham NY

                Floating Dreams and Flying Machines (2005)

                Recent Work (with Shawn Dulaney (2004)

~ Artist’s Choice, Weber Fine Art, Scarsdale NY (2002)

~ Kentler International Drawing Space, Red Hook, Brooklyn

                4Sight, Realism to Abstraction (2002)

9-11/Artists Respond (2001)

Small Works, (2001)

~ David Findlay Jr. Contemporary, New York

Contemporary Realism (2000)

Private Visions (1999)

~ Mixed Monotypes (curator), Brooklyn Brewery ArtSpace, Williamsburg, Brooklyn (2000)

~ Brooklyn on the Block (curator), Cindy Kelly/Mixed Media, Block Island RI (2001)

~ K&E Gallery, New York (1996-1997)

~ Bixler Gallery, New York (1994-1995)

~ Contemporary Figurative Work, national exhibition, Hammond Gallery, Lancaster OH (1992)

~ Art Imitates Baseball, juried by Ivan Karp, Mid Hudson Art Center, Poughkeepsie NY (1992)

~ Works on Paper, juried by Wolf Kahn, Windham Gallery, Brattleboro VT, (1991)

~ Small Works, juried by Linda Konheim-Kramer, Amos Eno Gallery, New York (1990)

~ Works on Paper, juried by Dominique Nahas, Clary-Miner Gallery, Buffalo (1990)

~ Delaware Valley Art Center (1989, 1990)

Grants

~ Artist in Residence, MacDowell Colony (1998)

Publications

~ Chronogram, review of Almost Real, by Beth E Wilson (2006)

~ New York Times review, Where the Island Begins, by Helen A. Harrison (2004)

~ New York Times review, Artist’s Choice, by D. Dominick Lombardi, Weber Fine Art (2002)

~ New American Paintings (1999)

~ Brooklyn Journal review, 4Sight, by Carl Blumenthal (2003)

~ American Artist (1995)

Gallery Affiliations

~ Allen Sheppard NYC/Philadelphia

~ Fetherston Gallery, Seattle

~ Kenise Barnes, Larchmont NY

David Konigsberg was born in Warren PA and lives and works in Brooklyn NY.  His rural and urban experience play out in a love for both landscape and conceptual narrative, genres he often travels between and sometimes combines.  Konigsberg’s work has been exhibited in galleries and art centers throughout the United States, including Allen Sheppard and David Findlay Jr. in New York, Ballard Fetherston Gallery in Seattle, and the Kentler International Drawing Space in Red Hook, Brooklyn. 

At a time when figurative art has enjoyed something of a revival, it is refreshing to find a reason
why it should—that is, an approach that doesn’t just revel in the form, but looks at the figure
anew, and gives a fresh application. What has attracted me to the work of David Konigsberg is
his fairly unique ability to marry traditions of painting (and a classicist’s eye) and a
contemporary sensibility. These are not, in other words, your father’s figurative paintings.
Whether large or small, Konigsberg’s figures are clearly in a state of transition, filled with
character and individual intent, yet tied to a larger choreography over which they have little
control or awareness. The spiritual implications of this are both ambiguous and profound.
Tension lurks beneath the placid, and humor betrays the menace. In paintings that are frankly a
pleasure to look at, he delivers us to a mixed emotional state—one that feels altogether natural in our current time and place.

David Konigsberg bridges the divide between art and real life in narrative paintings and works
on paper that are both objective and conceptual. His style is soft and approachable, and he invites the viewer into an appealing pictorial landscape. Konigsberg comes to his art from the point of view of a writer and brings literary traditions to painting in the form of reoccurring symbols and characters. These take the form of airships, swimmers, men in suits and other figures, acting singly or in groups. Nature is usually the backdrop, but sometimes it takes center stage . . . . His technique of using creamy paint scrumble over a warm ground is especially evident in works in which image and ground  are embedded in an atmospheric space. Konigsberg's work occupies a nether world of image and memory in his very personal narratives, which are not meant to be deciphered but experienced as emotional possibilities. As viewers, we become involved in the artist's drama, a universal one, of what it means to be human.

Margaret Neill, curator, 4Sight:  Realism to Abstraction, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn NY February 21, 2002