David Nash

David Nash is a British sculptor internationally renowned for his work involving wood, trees, and the natural environment.

Biography of David Nash

David Nash was born in Esher, Surrey (England), in 1945. He attended the Kingston College of Art (1963-1967) and the Chelsea School of Art (1969-1970). 

In the late 1960s, Nash relocated to Blaenau Ffestiniog, a remote village in North Wales, where he continues to reside.

In 1973, he debuted his first solo exhibition in Wales, sparking a series of solo shows across the UK and internationally.

Nash became a member of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1999. He received the Order of the British Empire in 2004 and served as artist in residence at Kew Gardens, London, in 2012. In 2016, he earned the Charles Wollaston Award.

His works have been included in numerous exhibitions worldwide, including "Sculptures and Papers" at Galerie LeLong in Paris (2023), "Full Circle" at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield (2022), "Sculptors’ Prints" at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens in Penzance (2022), "Crags, Stacks and Columns" at Cristea Roberts Gallery in London (2021), "Return to the Forest" at Grizedale Forest Centre in Cumbria (2021), and many more. 

Nash's artworks are prominently featured in more than 80 public collections across the globe. These include esteemed institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art in Caracas, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and Tate in London.

David Nash's Art Style

Initially responding to Minimalism in his early work, Nash shifted his approach in the late 1960s towards a more holistic perspective, viewing his art as a collaboration with nature.

He predominantly employs wood in his artistic practice, cultivating and shaping copses into domes and grids of saplings. He also creates sculptures by carving and charring fallen trees. His creative process is documented through drawings, film, photographs, and, more recently, pastel stencil editions, capturing the natural forms and contours found in his sculptures.

Using heavy equipment such as chainsaws and blowtorches, Nash crafts his wooden sculptures, transforming trees into unexpected forms. One notable example is "Oculus Block" (2010), where he melded two Eucalyptus stumps into a solid square shape.

Nash also engages in land art, with one of his most renowned pieces being Wooden Boulder, initiated in 1978. This work involves a large wooden sphere carved by Nash in the landscape of North Wales, where it was left to weather naturally. Over the years, the boulder has moved, rolled, and at times been carried by streams and rivers. Initially thought to have been washed out to sea, the boulder mysteriously reappeared in June 2009 and in 2015. Nash, unaware of its whereabouts during its absence, embraces the concept that wood originating from the land ultimately returns to it.