David Linneweh
David is a lifelong Illinois resident, artist, and educator who lives in the Greater Chicagoland area, where he balances his studio practice with his roles as host/creator of the Studio Break podcast and director of Studio Break Gallery. He has exhibited his work nationally, including solo exhibitions at Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati, OH, and RACA Gallery in Mankato, MN.
Linneweh received his BFA from Illinois State University and his MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale with an emphasis in painting. His work has been published in New American Paintings, Studio Visit Magazine, Manifest Press, and Create Magazine. David has appeared as a guest on a variety of podcasts including Ahtcast, Bad at Sports, and I Like Your Work. He’s completed residencies at Centraltrak Artist Residency (Dallas, TX); Chautauqua School of Art (Chautauqua, NY); Jentel (Banner, WY); The Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts (Nebraska City, NE); Osage Arts Community (Belle, MO); and Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT).
David currently lives in West Chicago, where he maintains a painting practice that has largely explored ideas of nostalgia and the American Dream through landscape and architecture.
Artist Statement
When walking through my neighborhood, my mind is flooded with observations of light as it falls over homes and manicured lawns. Facades glisten with an intensity and variety of color that elicit a dreamlike state that feels nostalgic and prophetic at the same time. These suburban streets transport me in time; I close my eyes and memories of backyard barbecues, bike rides, and birthday parties in the garage fill my head. As the setting sun bathes rooftops in a warm glow, I reflect on the idea of the American Dream and wonder if its tenets are based in illusion or reality.
My experiences in the landscape are distilled through photography, which begins my process. Photos with dynamic formal qualities are selected as the foundation of a new painting. Digital images are carefully composed and printed to create image transfers over a wood veneer, resulting in an image that appears old and weathered.
A layer of graphite is then applied to give definition to the edges of architectural and greenery elements. When the drawing is complete, the surface is sealed with layers of matte medium. The painting process begins by adding shapes of flat color, followed by careful reflection on the paint’s interaction with the implied texture and faded color of the image transfer. The paintings slowly evolve over numerous sessions to create a composition that, at a distance, looks whole, but upon close inspection is defined by flat shapes of color that sit on the surface.
The finished paintings are formally inviting yet unresolved because they acknowledge their own physicality as paint and object. The visual tension in my paintings reflects the current tension within contemporary America, where families endeavor to transform dreams into reality. In this way, the paintings act as mirrors meant to evoke the viewer to meditate and reflect on the idea of the American Dream. Do these works elicit faded memories of the past, or do they bolster the ideals of a utopian society? One wonders if this dream has become manifest, or if it represents an unattainable ideal that mutates through the passage of time.
www.davidlinneweh.com/pembroke-ln