David Chamberlain

David Allen Chamberlain (August 11, 1949) is an American sculptor, painter, educator, and musician. He has created more than 2000 original works in several related mediums. His artistic compositions appear in the permanent collections of arts institutions, museums, colleges and independent collections around the world. Over 100 of his works are featured in the permanent collections of arts institutions and museums, including the Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington DE; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA; the British Museum, London, England; the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA; the Smithsonian American Art Museum Renwick Gallery, Washington, DC, and the Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ. A contemporary modern multi-disciplinary artist and practicing polymath, he is an innovator in developing abstract sculptural forms and compelling spatial relationships, and an innovator in making truly collaborative painting compositions.

Early life and education

Chamberlain was born in Canton, Ohio, to Clifford Ivan and Nancy (Allen) C. His parents were educators at Beaver River Central School (BRCS) in Beaver Falls, NY, where he grew up with brothers Peter, Samuel, and Robert. He was deeply influenced by the cultural, musical, and artistic movements of the 1960s and 1970s (especially involving jazz and improvisation) and by the nature of human composition and the visual language. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from Princeton University in 1971 and a Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977. He also has a graduate certificate from the Teaching Studio Art Institute at Colorado College, 1973 and a Master of Landscape Architecture degree from the University of Colorado, Denver, 2002.

Career

Painter/sculptor

Chamberlain has been a full-time artist since 1977. He creates abstract paintings via The Chamberlain Method of monotype oil painting, a unique studio process that he has developed. He uses a light table, carefully arranged overhead mirrors, and hands – without brushes. Several hundred painting compositions of this type have been created since 1994, exploring a variety of music-related themes and aesthetic directions; many of which appear in museum collections. They embody the combined characteristics of original oil paintings, graphic works run through an etching press, and drawings formed by virtuoso marks made by hand on paper.

This technique makes possible the intense collaborations he is known for, Duett Painting, where he and a painting partner work jointly on the same painting at the same time. This mutual and simultaneous way for two visual composers to create images together attempts to integrate the backgrounds and reveal the characters of each participant, directly, and profoundly. His sculptures are noted for their playful explorations of lyrical, melodic edges, and harmonious spaces. The surfaces are one continuous form; the insides become the outsides and vice-versa; the edges are one continuous interconnected line. Mediums include bronze, titanium, gold, mahogany, marble and ceramic/porcelain. Sizes range from about 7 inches to 7 feet in height, although his snow sculptures are about 12 feet in height.

Musician

Chamberlain is an a cappella singer with three recording albums and over 700 concerts. For over four decades he has sung bass, performed with and arranged for the mixed a quartet Cahoots based in New Haven, CT and less frequently with the 1971 Footnote Quartet. Prior to that, he performed with the mixed Octet All Good Children based in Princeton, NJ. During his undergraduate years he sang bass with the Princeton Footnotes and was its president. In high school, he formed the nationally recognized Coachmen Four folk quartet based in Lewis County, New York, and performed with several select regional choruses (baritone) and instrumental bands (cornet). His artistic approach and imagery are inspired by studies of musical patterns and relationships, and most of his artworks draw upon musical titles. Other influences include topology, poetry, dance, design, athletics and flying.

Educator

Chamberlain has been a Visiting Professor at Clemson University and a Presidential Fellow at the University South Carolina. He was co-founder and Director of the multi-disciplinary Arts College House, University of Pennsylvania. He has been a visiting artist/professor at other educational institutions including Rivier College, Bentley College, Williams College, Rhode Island School of Design, SUNY Albany, The Haverford School, The College of Charleston, Syracuse University, Missouri Valley College, The African Institute of Art (FUNDA) and the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts.

Media presence

Chamberlain has been featured on media platforms nationally and internationally, via print, radio, film and TV.

Collaborations

In 1995, in developing his collaborative approach to Duett Painting, he was among the first American artists to do a post-war cultural exchange with Vietnam. In 1997, in expanding the scope and depth of his collaborative Duett Painting methodology he was among the first American artists to do a post-Apartheid cultural exchange with emerging artists in the Republic of South Africa (RSA). These early collaborations paved the way for what has become a powerful multicultural contribution to the milieu.

South Africa (Artist Proof Studio, Johannesburg, Director Kim Berman) 1997

Duetts with: Kagiso Pat Mautloa, Durant Sihlali, Mmakgabo Sebidi, Dumisane Mabaso, Nhlanhla Xaba, Pepe Abela, Vincent Baloyi, Ntepe Osiah Masekwameng, Gordon Gabashane, and Sokhaya Nkosi

Vietnam (Indochina Arts Project, Director C. David Thomas) 1995

Fine Arts Associations, Saigon, Hue and Hanoi; Ecole des Beaux Arts, Hanoi Duetts with: Do Minh Tam, Hoc Hai, Huy Oanh, Le Anh Van, Le Thong, Le Van Suu, Manh Tuan, Mai Khanh, Nghia Duyen, Thuc Ban, Tran Khan Chuong, Tran Luong, and Nguyen Quynh Nhu

Studio Duetts (including affiliations with the Conference on World Affairs, Boulder CO)

Duetts with: Yuji Kishimoto (Architect -- Japan/USA), Emi Tajima (Japanese artist, master calligrapher), Nguyen Quynh Nhu (Vietnamese artist), Eduardo Chavez & Arturo Miranda (Mexican artists), Kyi May Kaung (Burmese Poet), Patrick Moraz (Swiss/American composer/performer), Jingalu (Aboriginal Australian artist), Rungsak Dokbua (Thailand artist), and Americans Don Grusin (Composer/performer), Dave Grusin (Composer/performer), Harry Skoler (Composer/performer), Sarah Schneider (Dancer/choreographer), Sally Ranney (artist/humanist), Cleo Parker Robinson (Dancer/choreographer), Richard Royce (master printmaker), and Melissa Matson (RPO Principal Violist, fabric artist). Chamberlain was a panelist at the annual Conference on World Affairs (CWA) for several years in the 1990s, where he represented the creative arts (performing, visual, literary).

Selected exhibitions

• Morris Gallery, Missouri Valley College, Marshall, MO 2017 • Geisel Gallery, Bausch & Lomb Center, Rochester NY 2013 • Tointon Gallery for the Visual Arts, Greeley, CO 2002 • Consulate of Japan, San Francisco, CA 1999, 1998 • Muse a Muse' Gallery, Tokyo, Japan 1997, 1999 • Retrospective: "Solos, Duets & Concertos" Muskegon Mus. of Art, MI 1996 • "Duets" Delaware Museum of Art, Wilmington, DE 1995 • MacLaren/Markowitz Gallery, Boulder, CO 1991 • Retrospective: McKissick Museum of Art, Columbia, SC 1990 • Retrospective: The Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA 1988 • Pucker Gallery, Boston, MA 1981, 1984, 1988 • Gibson Gallery, SUNY at Potsdam, NY 1987 • Arlene McDaniel Galleries, Simsbury, CT 1986 • Lyme Academy of Fine Arts, Old Lyme, CT 1985, 1986 • Gallerie Obussier, Nantucket, MA 1985 • New Acquisitions Gallery, Syracuse, NY 1983 • Retrospective: Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY 1983

Collections

• Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA • Arjo Wiggins/Arches S.A., Annonay, France • Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, England • Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA • British Museum, London, England • Canadian Foreign Ministry, Ottawa, Canada • Currier Gallery & Museum, Manchester, NH • Davis Museum of Art, Wellesley, MA • Delaware Museum of Art, Wilmington, DE • Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO • Farnsworth Museum of Art, Rockland, ME • Fine Arts Center at Cheekwood, Nashville,TN • Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge University, England • Frederik Meijer Sculpture Gardens, Grand Rapids, MI • Gauteng Legislature, Gauteng, South Africa • Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC • Gibson Gallery & Museum, SUNY Potsdam, NY • Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan • Japanese Consulates: Boston, MA; Atlanta, GA; San Francisco, CA • Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY • Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN • Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute of Art, Utica, NY • Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA • Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, MI • Nelson Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO • New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT • Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME • Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ • Saint Joseph's Heart Hospital, Lexington, KY • San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA • Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA • Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, Washington DC • Taylor Museum/CSFAC, Colorado Springs, CO • Temple Society of Concord, Syracuse, NY • University of Wisconsin School of Business, Madison, WI • Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England • Vietnam Embassy to Canada, Ottawa, Canada • Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT • Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA • Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT

Publications

• Film segment Video Jukebox DeCordova Museum of Art, Lincoln, MA 1999 • Film David Chamberlain: Artistry in Motion {30 minutes} SC-ETV/PBS 1992 [YouTube] • Book Melodic Forms: The Sculpture of David Chamberlain {75 pages, color} 1990, David Godine, Publisher Boston, MA • Videotape Search for Perfection; {16 minutes} FIS/Pucker Safrai 1982 [YouTube]

Personal life

David Chamberlain has two children (with his ex-wife, dancer Patrishya A. Fitzgerald); Lura Fitzgerald Chamberlain and Ezra Vincent Chamberlain He lives in Sodus Point, New York, with his paramour and domestic partner Janet M. Halasinski