about

Bio

David Tycho was born in Vancouver, Canada, and later attended the University of British Columbia, where he studied painting under renowned Canadian artist Gordon Smith. After graduating and working through a number of Modernist styles, David arrived at his personal interpretation of figurative expressionism, which remained his focus until moving to Asia in 1984.

In Japan, Tycho was exposed to Shodo, a Japanese style of calligraphic painting. He was particularly intrigued by the paintings of Zen monks, whose fluid, gestural brushwork often rendered the characters illegible, and ultimately abstract. At the same time, he was also inspired by the paintings of Robert Motherwell, Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning, and David soon began to explore abstraction for himself.

In 1990, David began working through a number of abstract styles: from gestural, painterly expressionism, to hard-edged minimalism. He began to exhibit his work professionally in 1991, and had his first solo show in Vancouver in 1993.

In 1995 Tycho began making frequent treks into wilderness areas: from the austere deserts of California and Nevada to the coastal rain forests of British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. Forms and colours of the natural environment found their way onto his palette, and, in combination with intuitive aesthetic impulses, the resulting works were a synthesis of landscape painting and abstraction.

A trip to Asia in 2011 rekindled David’s interest in the Orient, and his Japan Series was informed and inspired by this. The paintings were more representational in nature, containing a number of recognizable Japanese themes and motifs.

From 2012 to 2016, Tycho’s work took on a markedly urban look, inspired by the paradoxical nature of large cities—environments that he interpreted as being both alluring and potentially alienating at the same time.

A return to landscape inspired painting in 2017 led to his Fire and Rain exhibition, a semi-abstracted account of a 9,000 km solo journey through western North America.

David now explores a variety of environments and phenomena in his art. He is most interested in the ambiguity and tension that exists in the seam between abstraction and representation, as he continues to expand his understanding of form, colour, gesture, and paint application. He has also begun to experiment with photography and digital composite images printed on aluminum.

Tycho has exhibited his works in New York, Los Angeles, Napa, Seattle, Brussels, Geneva, Singapore, Manila, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary and Winnipeg, and his paintings are collected worldwide.

In addition to being an artist, David is an often-published writer of articles on art, social issues and wilderness travel, and winner of a Canadian Literary Award. He has also been interviewed on radio, television and for print media numerous times.

EDUCATION

B.Ed. in Visual Arts Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, 1983.

Diploma, Vancouver Film School, Vancouver, Canada, 2004.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2020 Urbania, Ian Tan Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2018 Fire and Rain: A Journey to Extremes, South Main Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2017 Station to Station, South Main Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2016 Metropolis: Variations on a Theme, South Main Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2015 Urban Rhapsody, B.C. Supreme Courthouse, Vancouver, Canada

2011 The Vital Gesture, Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2010 The Vital Gesture, Gallery I.M.A., Seattle, USA

2008 The River Series, Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2007 The Black Tusk Series, Petley Jones Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2006 Recent Works, GBR Foundation, Manila, Philippines

1998 Elements II, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, USA

1998 Elements II, Simon Patrich Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

1996 Elements, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, USA

1995 Rainshadow, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, USA

1995 Primordial, City of Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, Canada

1994 Earth and Sky, Patrick Doheny Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

1993 The Archetype Series, Alexander Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2023 Featured Artist, Christopher Hill Gallery, St. Helena, Napa Valley, California, USA

37th Anniversary Exhibition, Art Works Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2022. NEXT, The Cultch Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

Artists for Ukraine, Art Works Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

The Poetry Project, Gallery George, Vancouver, Canada

Selected Gallery Artists, Art Works Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2021 Selected Gallery Artists, Art Works Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

Essential Travel, Pendulum Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

Invitational Exhibition, Vancouver Visual Art Foundation, Vancouver, Canada

The Poetry Project, Gallery George, Vancouver, Canada

2020 Selected Artists, Gallery George, Vancouver, Canada

2019 Displacement, Arts Factory Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

Gallery Artists, South Main Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2018 Gallery Artists, South Main Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

2017 The Other Art Fair, Brooklyn Expo Center, New York, USA

Gallery Artists, South Main Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

Gallery Artists, Frame Society Gallery, Singapore

2016 Gallery Artists, South Main Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

Gallery Artists, Gurevich Fine Art, Winnipeg, Canada

Gallery Artists, Frame Society Gallery, Singapore

2015 Gallery Artists, South Main Gallery, Vancouver, Canada

A Sense of Place, Gurevich Fine Art, Winnipeg, Canada

Gallery Artists, Frame Society Gallery, Singapore