BIO
David Reed Elliott is a multidisciplinary artist based in Oxfordshire, UK. Working across painting, assemblage, and word-based art, his practice combines layered acrylic and oil painting on canvas, with site-specific walking and drawing leading to assemblages of found objects accompanied by spontaneous poetry.
He is best known for his large-scale figurative abstract works, which employ a vibrant yet selective palette of glazes and impasto to create distinctive textures and moods.
Elliott’s work is informed by his background in art psychotherapy, exploring themes of identity, memory, place, and the interplay between the conscious and unconscious. His recent practice is characterised by a dynamic synthesis of abstraction and figuration, often grounded in sensory responses to place. A key development in his oeuvre was the Jazztown series (2025), created during a four-week residency, in which expressive action-painting converged with figurative urban landscapes to establish a signature visual language.
CV
Born in 1962 in Hampshire, UK
Resides and works in Oxfordshire, UK
EDUCATION
2022-2025: MA Fine Art, Falmouth University, UK
2016-2017: Drawing 1, Open College of the Arts, UK
2011-2014: MA Art Therapy, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK
1998-2000: National Certificate Illustration & Graphic Design, Cherwell College, Banbury, UK 1988-1991: BA [hons] Theology, London School of Theology, Middlesex University, UK
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026, Leiden/Oxford Exchange, (group exhibition), Ars-Aemula, Leiden, Holland [upcoming]
2026, Oxford Art Weeks, (solo exhibition), Woodstock, Oxfordshire, UK [upcoming]
2026, O.S.D. 1, (solo exhibition), Oxfordshire, UK [upcoming]
2025, It’s Art, (group-residency exhibition), OVADA, Oxford, UK
2025, Queue, open call, (group exhibition), OVADA, Oxford, UK
2025, A time and place, (solo exhibition), OVADA, Oxford, UK
2024, MA Fine Art student exhibition, (group exhibition), The Art Room, Leamington Spa, UK
2023, Art-on-loop, (open call), The Holy Art, London, UK & Athens, Greece 2022, The Jam Factory Arts, (open call), The Jam Factory, Oxford, UK 2011, Coast, (solo exhibition), Kieran Stiles Studios, Oxford, UK
COLLECTIONS
SMH, Aylesbury, UK
David R. Elliott is collected by various private collectors in the UK
RESIDENCIES
2025, Summer Residency, OVADA, Oxford, UK
PROFESSIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS
2025: Workshop facilitator: OVADA, Oxford, UK.
2025: Exhibition invigilator: OVADA, Oxford, UK. 2020-2022: Guest speaker & workshop facilitator, Sketchbookskool: https://www.sketchbookskool.com/
2014-present: Art psychotherapist, with special schools in Oxford, UK.
2007-2016: Arts coordinator, curator, workshop coordinator, artist commissioner, chair: Arts Planning Group, NHS Healthcare Trusts, UK. 2000-2007: Designer/illustrator/studio manager, Spirit Ltd UK, Thame, Oxfordshire, UK. 1998-2000: Graphic designer, Diocese of St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK.