‘Chevrolet 490’ from ‘Seasonal Veteran and Vintage Cars in Colour’ by David Ferry is a signed limited edition Archive Digital Print in an edition of 10. Bright, shiny motorcars garlanded with fragrant blooms are the subjects of some of Ferry’s most recent montages. The car, a symbol of modernism, is also a toxic intruder. In apocalyptic science fiction movies, the inventions of man fail to achieve their promise and are eventually left to the mercies of nature. This is the fate of the vintage cars in Ferry’s images, but it is the polite English gardens that claim these machines rather than tangled overgrowth of the untameable wilderness. The message is seemingly that tradition wins over progress and that modernisation has its limits.
Artist Biography
David Ferry
David Ferry was born in Blackpool in 1957 and studied Fine Art at Blackpool, Camberwell and the Slade. His first solo exhibition in London was at the First International Contemporary Art Fair in 1984 in the 'none aligned section' alongside Dubsky, Derek Jarman and other artists who did not fit conventionally into the established gallery scene at that time.
What is distinctive about David Ferry's new work is that he takes us back to the sights and sensations, smells and textures of an earlier modernist style, whilst retaining a sense of 'naughtiness', reminding us that art can be entertaining too. David is currently Head of Printmaking at the Cardiff School of Art & Design and a visiting lecturer at the Crawford College of Art and the Burren College of Art in Ireland - from where he has recently taken much inspiration. "The Burren is an area where wonderful visual alignments and natural synergies mingle with human cross-references; there exists a complex grid plan, akin to any city environment".
