David Love

media release:PASTURES OF PLENTY: MFA Thesis Exhibition by David Love

Tandem Press Apex Gallery, 1743 Commercial Avenue, Madison, WI 53704

Open Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm

Exhibition Dates: March 11 - April 5, 2024

Exhibition Reception: Friday, March 15, 5-8 pm

Tandem Press is pleased to host Pastures of Plenty, a Master of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition by David Love, University of Wisconsin-Madison MFA Candidate and 2023-2024 Tandem Press Studio Project Assistant. By re-examining found images and objects through printmaking and sculpture, David Love investigates the perception of labor and the myth of prosperity that pervades American history. Pastures of Plenty presents this project through printed images, found objects, assembled sculptures, and a site-specific installation.

Exhibition Statement

My work begins with searching through dollar bins at flea markets and combing through digital collections of photographs. I am drawn to objects and images from the early to middle of the 20th century that embody experiences of industrial labor. 

This era is widely depicted as a time when Americans were patriotically unified, often represented by working men toiling in the mills or in the field. However, the shift toward industrialization led to struggles for workers’ rights. Many faced difficult working conditions, and few reaped the benefits; a pattern that continues 100 years later. Pastures of Plenty is an alternative interpretation of the American industrial landscape through objects and images. The esoteric logic of the work presented in this exhibition is meant to reflect a mythologized representation of labor.

I choose to work with metal, wood, and paper. In addition to their utility, these materials possess a natural rawness that gains character with use, time, and environmental conditions. When I examine an old tool or piece of rusted hardware, I approach it first as art without intent, appreciating it for its materiality, form, and texture. 

In this exhibition, you’ll find tools that are embedded with stories in every mark, dent, and pattern of wear. In the works on paper, I experiment with various printmaking processes to discover which matrix produces the most dynamic image. Black and white intaglio prints chronicle snapshots of ominous landscapes and mythic structures. I print pebble-like textures over photos via stone lithography to reflect a deteriorating memory of industrial landscapes. The old shed represents both a metaphorical and physical space to suggest a context for the images and objects around it to examine a fading collective memory.

Pastures of Plenty does not come from a place of nostalgia but instead honors the complexity of the American working-class experience. Through exploring the materiality and aesthetics of this bygone era, I question our relationships to labor history and material culture as we learn to navigate a rapidly changing modern society.

Artist Biography

In his prints and sculptures, David Love investigates labor and the myth of prosperity throughout American history. His work is rooted in the visual and material culture of the American industrial landscape. Love was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He holds a BFA from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University and is currently an MFA candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a project assistant at Tandem Press.