BIO
David Reed Elliott (b. 1962, Hampshire, UK) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Oxfordshire, UK. Working across painting, assemblage and word-based art, David employs layered acrylic and oil paint on canvas, alongside site-specific walking and drawing practices leading to assemblages constructed of found objects and spontaneous poetry. He is best known for his large-scale figurative abstract works, in which a vibrant yet select palette of glazes and impasto textures evoke complex emotional atmospheres and shifting states of being.
David’s practice is deeply informed by his background in art psychotherapy, with themes of identity, memory, and the interplay of the conscious and unconscious. His notable project 30 Oaks – 30 Silver saw him revisit seven locations across the UK where he had lived over three decades, planting oak saplings and burying silver coins as symbolic acts of reflection and renewal. These journeys generated sketches, totemic assemblages and mixed-media works exploring contrition, trauma and transformation. The 2025 exhibition and workshop A Time and Place at OVADA, Oxford, marked the culmination of his MFA studies, extending his inquiry into personal and ancestral memory. His Jazztown series, developed during a summer residency, represents a key evolution in his visual language, merging expressive abstraction with figurative landscape motifs.
David has exhibited in numerous group and solo shows, including It’s Art (OVADA, Oxford, 2025), A Time and Place (solo, OVADA, Oxford, 2025), Falmouth University MA Fine Art (Leamington Spa, 2024), Art-on-loop (The Holy Art, London and Athens, 2023), and The Jam Factory Arts (Oxford, 2022). His work is held in various private and national collections, including the SMH Collection, Aylesbury, UK. David participated in the OVADA Summer Residency, continuing to develop a practice that bridges material exploration with psychological depth.
Photograph: Audrey Baldwin, 2025.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, Oxford Art Weeks, (solo exhibition), Woodstock, 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
The Gallery Trust, Oxford, SMH, Aylesbury, UK
David R. Elliott is collected by various private collectors in the UK
RESIDENCIES/COMPETITIONS/GRANTS
2025, Luxembourg Art Prize: Certificate of Artistic Achievement. 2025, Summer Residency, Oxford Visual Arts Development Agency [OVADA], Oxford, UK 2023, The Turing Grant: one month residency in Italy with the Florence University of the Arts & Falmouth University.
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-needs 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.