BIO

Artist and provocateur, David Ford, incorporates political, social, and cultural themes into his paintings, sculpture, installations, and performances. Using beauty and humor to draw the viewer into complex situations, he juxtaposes high/low, east/west, serenity/fear into a conversation of twenty-first century interface. His collaborations with non-artist participants include clergy, exotic dancers, demolition derbies, and African-American drill teams. Critically acclaimed in Art in America, ArtPapers, Flavorpill, and the Village Voice, Ford, born in 1964 in Kansas City, Missouri, comes from many generations of prairie people. His formal education ended when he dropped out of the Jesuit seminary at age fifteen. A self-taught artist, David Ford has pursued on-site cultural studies in places like Morocco, Guatemala, Cuba, and Turkey. His experimental process continues to layer and explore. A push-pull in his work has remained a constant for twenty-five years. While probing the limits of taste and decorum, he has received awards from the Charlotte Street Foundation, the Tanne Foundation, Art Omi, and Creative Capital.