David Webber
FOUGARO welcomes in BLUE2 space an exhibition dedicated to the work of David Webber, the self-taught folk artist and naturalised Greek who lives and works on Spetses. The exhibition comprises painting on canvas and wood as well as objects in the artist’s signature idiom, in which strong colours, elements of nature and folk motifs coexist and converse with imagination and rhythm as they often hover or dance in a universe of their own.
Born in Britain, David Webber has lived on Spetses since 1973. His home and studio in one of the island’s old mansions hosts his own unique world. This bustling, colourful universe consists of books, magazines, tools, paint boxes, brushes, photos and photocopies, textiles, furniture and folk artworks mixed with his own creations, but also of all sorts of objects to get a chance for a second life from Webber’s hands. To those who see just an old door handle, David breaks into his disarming smile and replies with his motto —“don’t look at what it is but what it can be”— and points to a sceptre where a similar handle has become the king’s head with his crown worn at an angle.
His self-luminous world is reflected also on his vibrant works. Harmoniously cohabiting them are pomegranates that radiate colour, restless fish, angels in Greek costumes, ships that have come to life, heroes of the Greek Revolution, dense foliage and hasty birds. All these have their own symbolism to David Webber, and a meaning that may stem from Greek tradition but comes creatively to converse with the austere grandeur of Byzantine art, the principles of his native country’s Arts & Crafts movement and motifs of ancient art.
curators
Florica P. Kyriacopoulos
Antonis J. Kontroyiannis
David Webber
He was born in Scotland in 1942 to a Welsh mother and English father. Shortly after his birth the family moved to London where, after his parents’ divorce, he lived with his mother in the tough neighbourhood of Elephant and Castle. He started working while still at school, which he left at the age of 14 in order to work full-time.
By the time he was 19 he knew he would have to leave the country. He joined the army and was posted to Cyprus in 1962; once there, he realised he would never return to Britain. In Cyprus he met his Greek wife, with whom they spent the first years of their married life in Athens.
He had always had an instinct for the arts, but his true interest was triggered by the love of his wife’s family for folk art which became the foundation of his work. In 1973 they opened together a shop on Spetses, where David began to make jewellery with beads. Around 1984, encouraged by his friends, he started painting ships on doors from the island’s old houses. The project stirred people’s interest and so he gave free reign to his imagination and went from ships to more themes. A few years later a friend gave him some blank canvases, and this is how he started painting on canvas.
His first exhibition was held at “Panorama”, Athens in 1996. Since then he has had numerous shows on Spetses and two in Nafplio; in 2001 he presented his paintings at the Melina Merkouri Art Gallery of Hydra and in 2003 at the Beerman Gallery in Kranidi.
