DAVID GRIESSEL
Artist Biography
David Griessel is a South African contemporary artist born and raised in Bloemfontein. He completed his BA in Fine Arts at the University of the Free State in 2012 and has worked as a full-time artist ever since. His multidisciplinary practice encompasses ink, watercolour and gouache on paper, pastel, animation and, increasingly, resin and bronze sculpture. His work has been exhibited throughout South Africa and internationally, including during an artist residency at Draw International in Caylus, France.
At first glance, David’s intricate works appear to belong to a whimsical fantasy world. Beneath this playfulness, however, lie more introspective themes of displacement, alienation, melancholia and the cyclical nature of existence. His work deliberately walks a tightrope between whimsy and pensiveness, light and darkness, growth and decay, creating an ambiguous visual language that allows multiple narratives to coexist.
Literature, mythology and art history are woven throughout his practice. References to writers such as Kafka, Nietzsche and T.S. Eliot sit alongside influences ranging from Bosch, Chagall and Paul Klee to contemporary visionary artists. Over time, these recurring characters, symbols and landscapes have begun to inhabit an interconnected parallel universe that David calls Duskland.
Drawing remains fundamental to David’s process. Ideas begin as spontaneous sketches and doodles on inexpensive scraps of paper, freeing him from the pressure of creating a finished artwork. Images are erased, redrawn and reimagined until a composition begins to emerge. The final works are meticulously constructed through ink, crosshatching, mark-making, watercolour and gouache, creating extraordinary levels of detail that reward close observation.
In recent years, David’s imaginative world has expanded beyond the page. Collaboration with Art@Africa, Kunye Colab and other creatives has introduced augmented reality, animation and three-dimensional sculpture into his practice. Characters once confined to drawings now inhabit physical space in bronze and resin, while works such as The Traveling Hermit, Insomnia Fish Totem and Fynbos Friend connect his characteristic fantasy language with contemporary ideas around environmental responsibility, resilience and humanity’s relationship with nature.
David has been represented by Art@Africa since 2019 and is also represented internationally in Belgium and Sweden. His work has appeared at art fairs in South Africa, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. As Duskland continues to evolve, David is increasingly interested in dissolving the boundaries between drawing, sculpture, animation and storytelling, creating immersive experiences that allow his imagined world to extend beyond the conventional gallery space.
Artist Statement
My drawings may appear to be whimsical fantasies, but beneath them are often deeply personal and sombre themes. I am interested in that uncertain space between playfulness and solemnity, whimsy and pensiveness. Recurring ideas of displacement, alienation and melancholia become currents running through the imagined world I call Duskland.
I have always been drawn to illustration and its uneasy relationship with fine art. It exists somewhere between word and image, literature and painting, book and gallery. I like that uncertainty. My pictures seem happiest in the same place I do - somewhere on the periphery, at the threshold and along the boundary.
Every work begins casually with sketches and doodles. I draw, erase and draw again, often allowing the remains of a failed image to become the foundation of something unexpected. From there, I develop the final work through ink, crosshatching, mark-making, watercolour and gouache. Increasingly, my characters also escape the page through animation, augmented reality and sculpture.
Nature has become an important part of this world. Trees, strange creatures and imagined beings allow me to explore resilience, healing and our relationship with the environment. I am fascinated by cycles - growth and decay, life and death, light and darkness - and by the fact that these apparent opposites cannot really exist without one another.
Ultimately, I want my work to be a springboard for the viewer’s imagination. I deliberately leave the narrative open enough for people to bring their own memories, interpretations and stories to what they see. For me, art is a two-way street: the work is only truly completed when the viewer brings something of themselves into it.
