David Lister
Painter • Sculptor • Filmmaker
David Lister’s art straddles two giant continents: it is redolent of both Africa—South Africa his birthplace--and Australia, his embraced, and deeply loved other land and place of belonging in the world.
The influences of these two spectacular and immense land masses can be seen in his vibrant landscapes. These exquisitely articulated images hum and thrum with the intertwined primal vitality of two continents that are both similar and dissimilar, shot through with the energy and vitality of each to create unique tributes that sing of nostalgia, memory, longing, belonging, and deep love of the earth and all its manifestations—both humble and glorious--of being.
Lister’s long career as a filmmaker, a crafter and imaginator of story, seeing the world through the lens of a keenly observant, visual storyteller, brings a distinctly filmic quality to his sumptuous art. His paintings and sketches capture simple moments, all lovingly framed by the artist’s unerring eye—and the filmmaker’s never-ending quest for the perfectly framed image.
There is also a flamboyant, shoot-out-the lights, giddiness to Lister’s other art forms.
While his more traditional painting and sketches underscore—and ably illuminate—his profound understanding of, and adherence to artistic tradition, precision and structure, and respect for artistic principle, his abstracts and zany, off-the-wall paintings are a vivid explosion of fun, humor, and what-the-hell. They’re a full-on, no holds barred expression of Lister’s crazily ecstatic inner child it seems. In these outlandish, playful, wildly colorful images, Lister’s imagination goes full-bore: colors are explosive, reality disappears, fantastical feral creatures dance, prance, pronk, swallow their faces, transmogrify terrifyingly and dazzlingly into breathtakingly marvelous others. Some images are hard to view, others are magnetizing, drawing one in; yet others are disquieting, their otherness hard to comprehend—yet they all, in their own way, compel one to look and continue looking, defying the viewer to discern their meaning.
It is this tantalizing mélange of sublimity and shock that makes David Lister’s work so intriguing. Both Africa and Australia seep, capillary-like through the veins of his work, influencing all he creates. Most apparent in his art is his desire to be true to himself, and to present faithfully and without artifice the world as he sees it, imagines it, and coaxes it to bloom on the canvas.
Jane Hurly PhD
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Explore My Work
• Online Art Gallery:
David Lister on Bluethumb Art
• Filmmaking:
davidlisterdirector.com
Feel free to explore and connect with my art—a reflection of my continuous journey through creativity and self-expression.