COVER | David Bruce Graves
Bush, 2019 (30 x 40 inches, digital and mixed media on paper mounted to wood panel) A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, David Bruce Graves worked as an art director, illustrator, photo retoucher, and fine artist in New York City for 30 years before returning to the Bay Area where he had earned a cooperative BFA in illustration and visual communication from The Academy of Art College and The University of San Francisco in 1981. He is influenced by symbolist painters such as Gustav Klimt, Odilon Redon, and Paul Gauguin, and his Afrocentric, figure-based compositions source American history, popular culture, religion, mythology, and nature. The narratives are often open-ended and meant to engage the active participation of the viewer for interpretation. Graves’ art has been exhibited at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture in Pittsburgh, The Rush Gallery in New York City, The N.Y. Society of Illustrators, and the Richmond Art Center among other venues. His solo exhibit, Heaven and Earth, can be viewed at the Joyce Gordon Gallery, 406 14th St. in downtown Oakland through Feb. 28, www.JoyceGordonGallery.com. More of his work can be seen www.DavidGravesFineArt.com.
