David Quinn

Drawing on book design, musical notation, signwriting and the Japanese philosophy of wabi-sabi, David Quinn’s abstract paintings explore repetition, transience and the possibilities of intuitive mark-making. Constructed from repeated lines, dots and grids, his compositions combine layers of paper and pigment to create surfaces whose worn edges reveal the accumulated history of their making. Colour, material and iteration guide the development of each work, which Quinn works on alongside several others without a predetermined outcome, allowing forms and ideas to shift between them. He describes these concentrated compositions as ‘visual haikus’, distilling his visual language through restrained mark making, while retaining subtle variations in colour and texture. Further informed by a longstanding interest in Eastern philosophy and aesthetics, Quinn approaches making as a meditative process, using repetition to register time and accumulation while embracing the imperfections that emerge through the process of creating.

David Quinn was born in Dublin in 1971 and studied Visual Communications at Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin (1989-1993). Awards and residencies include the Ballinglen Arts Foundation Residency (2006); Arts Council Visual Arts Bursary (2017); Metropolitan Fukujusō Residency, Kyoto (2022); and Cold Press Residency Award (2023). Quinn has exhibited internationally, with selected solo exhibitions including New Paintings, Purdy Hicks, London (2018); New Work, Gana Art Hannam, Seoul (2019); Stookeen, Purdy Hicks, London (2021); Paintings, Gana Art Nineone, Seoul (2023); Whoever Brought Me Here, Will Have to Bring Me Home, Francis Gallery, Bath (2024); and Saimhain, Rossi Contemporary, Brussels (2026). Selected group exhibitions include Éigse 30 Year Retrospective, VISUAL, Carlow (2010); Two Birds / One Stone, Farmleigh Gallery, Dublin (2016); Kwaidan, Lafcadio Hearn Memorial Museum, Matsue (2023); and Blue: The Pursuit of the Heavenly Colour, Purdy Hicks, London (2024). His work has also been presented at KIAF Seoul (2017-2018), Contemporary Istanbul (2018) and Art Brussels (2023). Quinn currently lives and works in Shillelagh, County Wicklow.