David Craven: Selected Works, 1981 to 2013

New York-based Canadian artist David Craven is widely recognized for a distinctive painting practice characterized by a dynamic sense of play coupled with an ongoing exploration of the tensions between abstraction and figuration. The portentous and commanding paintings featured here attest to Craven's turn to figuration after he moved to New York in 1980. While retaining the monumental scale of his abstract works of the 1970s, these later images depict the attributes of power brokering to create a critique of corporate power. Craven's unique brand of abstraction combines collage, gestural mark, poured paint and experimental shelf constructions. His crisscrossing, all-over motifs merge with non-narrative text elements to form a vivid expression of the pressures of urban living. With an interview with the artist.