David Begbie's distinctive figurative metal mesh sculptures are powerful, erotic and tactile. His artistic preoccupation with the human form as a subject developed from an early age and he takes a highly classical subject, transforming it with modernity and an urban edge.

 

In his sculptures, David achieves finely-worked musculature and the aesthetic completeness of healthy, strong human form (even though his subject is frequently that of the partial or truncated figure.) Metal mesh, a material which more often has industrial connotations, is manipulated to create sinuous body-forms that have the delicacy of billowing fabric. David first discovered the particular properties of steel and bronze mesh as an art student in 1977. The irridescent, translucent effect of the mesh, which one can gaze straight through, gives the impression that the body forms have no palpable surface or substance. As David explains: "each work is an entity which has a far greater physical presence than any solid object could possibly have because it has the power to suggest that it doesn't exist."

 

Not to be underestimated is the sculptures' interplay with shadow. The use of "shadowplay"- the shadows cast by his figures- abstracts the human form against the wall beyond and gives it a lively, playful dimension.

 

David Begbie has been widely exhibited internationally- London, Berlin, Miami, Padova, Bonn and even as far as Jamaica. Since his graduation in 1982 he has worked almost exclusively with the human form, primarily sculpting in steel and bronze mesh but also producing mono-prints, etchings, ink and charcoal drawings, mixed-media work and photographs. However it is for his distinctive wire mesh sculpture that David is most renowned. His work has been a great inspiration to other artists, architects, designers, photographers, collectors and even the world of theatre and dance.

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