History is Rubbish

David Godbold was educated at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London and also holds a PhD in fine art and visual culture from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. Having moved to Ireland at the beginning of the 90's, Godbold's work concentrated on the critical examination of the production, circulation and reception of visual imagery in both 'high' and 'low' culture. His work in a variety of media - but best known for drawings and texts overlaid onto found materials, exemplified by this suite of prints - invariably involves a complex process of quotation and re-grafting of disparately sourced imagery, to produce witty, irreverent and iconoclastic commentaries on the philosophical struggle with everyday life. In his own words, Godbold is interested in “the conflation of grand themes with daily minutiae”.

 David Godbold was awarded the PS1/MoMA International Studio Residency, New York, in 1999-2000, where his work developed its current image-text form and resulted in the development of large-scale installational wall drawings.  These transient large-format works have recently mutated into more permanent mural-scale paintings on canvas of impossible mythic and moody landscapes. Godbold was selected as a Rome Scholar at the British School in Rome, 2002 and controversially, as the official artist to the UK Parliamentary Election, 2005. His work is well represented in Irish public collections including the Butler Gallery, Trinity College, The Irish Museum of Modern Art, The Office of Public Works and the National Drawing Collection, as well as numerous private and corporate collections worldwide. Godbold has exhibited extensively and his recent solo shows include; The Butler Gallery, Killkenny, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, Galerie Kusseneers, Antwerp, Art Statements, Hong Kong and Tokyo, Galerie Bernd Klüser, Munich, Mitchell-Innes+Nash, New York and Jack Hanley, San Francisco.  David Godbold’s drawings and paintings are represented by Kerlin Gallery, Dublin.