David Mach was born in Methil, Fife, in 1956. He studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee from 1974–79, and at the Royal College of Art, London from 1979–82. Mach is heavily influenced by Pop Art and consumerism, and employs a sense of drama, performance and unexpectedness in his work. Mach’s practice also explores materiality on a grand scale, by bringing multiples of mass–produced objects, most notably magazines, newspapers and car tyres, together in large–scale installations. His work is representational, humorous, often controversial and verges on the overwhelming in its scale and audacity.

Mach was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1988 and was elected a member of the Royal Academy in 1998. In 2004, he was made an honorary member of the Royal Scottish Academy and, in 2011 he was awarded the Bank of Scotland Herald Angel Award for his sculpture Precious Light.

Mach has exhibited extensively worldwide, including at: Lisson Gallery, 1982; ‘British Sculpture 83’ at the Hayward Gallery London, 1983; ‘Polaris’ Royal Festival Hall, 1983; Hakone Open–Air Museum, Japan, 1993; APT Gallery, London, 2000; ‘College Portrait of Glasgow’, commissioned by Museum of Modern Art, Glasgow, 2002; ‘New Collages and Sculpture’, Forum Gallery, New York, USA, 2005; ‘Crucible’, Gloucester Cathedral, Gallery Pangolin, 2010; ‘Royal Academicians’, Royal Academy, London 2011; ‘Royal Academicians’, Seongham Art Centre, South Korea and ‘It takes Two to Tango’, Ville de Marseille, 2011.

Mach’s practice subverts traditional meanings assigned to objects and reassigns them surreal or anarchic connotations, often surprising the viewer through scale, materiality or concept and prompting the viewer to reconsider their preconceptions.

David Mach currently works from his studio based in London.

(sculpture.org.uk)