447 Space is pleased to present Jamaica, King David’s most ambitious undertaking as an artist yet. After more than two years of research and countless hours in the studio expanding the possibilities of his practice, David has created an abstract distillation of the place that means the most to him, the Land We Love, Jamaica. This exhibition is a love letter to the small, tropical island in the Caribbean that carries a unique, earth-shaking vibration in its soil, air, and water.

            Utilizing additive and reductive physical processes, along with the manipulable chemical characteristics of oil paint, this body of work is a culmination of psycho-spiritual analyses into Jamaica’s history and present, and the condition(s) of its people, in consideration for a better collective future. Each piece in this series alludes to, or is conceptually based in, either a significant event in Jamaica’s history (such as Tacky’s War in the 1760s), or an indelible part of Jamaican land and culture (like the Blue Mountains, or the Rasta colors red, gold, and green). These works build upon the delicate and brutal process of layering and defacement that David has pursued in his abstract painting practice for years. By pouring, pooling, congealing, rubbing, scraping, smashing, sliding, slicing, and gobbing as necessary, the surfaces of these resulting paintings range from brightly harmonious to aggressive and foreboding, records of the events that took place on them and abstract reflections of their respective subject matter. This wide range of moods and tonal shifts mirrors the breadth of what can be considered the “Jamaican experience”, i.e. the experience of being from this incredibly specific syncretism of cultures, peoples, and ways of life, that somehow breeds an entirely new yet familiar sense of pride and belonging out of a history paradoxically filled with torturous dehumanization and psychological torment.

“My record of actions across these surfaces evokes the tragic beauty of Jamaica, and pays respect to Jamaican people in doing so. The journey of my own family, from poverty to immigration and success, is also proudly acknowledged in every iota of this series. To them I owe everything. They taught me how to appreciate life, showed me the right way to treat people, and they continue to build me into the man I am today and nurture me towards becoming better. One of the main reasons I use the moniker “King David” is because of my lineage; from both sides of my family, I truly feel that I was blessed to be borne from royalty. Big up yaself!”

- One Love

King David, 2023