David Rayson was appointed professor and head of Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2006. He is a practising artist, tutor and curator and his work has been exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. His work is included in major collections including the Tate, Whitechapel Art Gallery, British Council, Deutsche Bank, Rubell Family Collection and Contemporary Art Society.
Rayson’s work relates directly to the visual potential of the everyday, enabling the ordinary to be realised as fantastic. He continues to support emerging artists through his engagement with many survey exhibitions such as Jerwood Gallery Trust, The Threadneadle Prize and artist-led initiatives.
‘Comfy settees and fringed lampshades; a trip to the local off-licence; bird-watching, of both the human and animal kind. This is the sort of quotidian stuff that makes up David Rayson's depiction of English suburbia, but all of it drawn in bright, heavy, felt-tip inks so that his scenes take on an intense, immediate, disorientating feel, like something from a dream or fever.’
—Gabriel Coxhead, Time Out, January 2009
David Rayson was born 1966 in Wolverhampton. He grew up on a suburban council estate called Ashmore Park, which to this day has proved a seminal experience in shaping his rich vocabulary of council houses, fitted carpets, TV evenings, comprehensive education, underfunded youth clubs, wonderfully resourceful and unpredictable childhood friends and a never-ending desire to make more of what one has – being creative to make the everyday fantastic.
After graduating from the Royal College of Art in 1997, David Rayson’s work was included in many seminal exhibitions such as Examining Pictures: Exhibiting Paintings (Whitechapel Art Gallery, London; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago), a timely survey of historical and contemporary painting. Rayson’s drawings were included in the exhibition Surfacing at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) showcasing contemporary drawing. This was followed by a series of solo shows at Maureen Paley’s Interim Art as well as group exhibitions at major public commercial galleries in the UK and abroad, including the British Council’s touring exhibition Landscape, which explored artistic practices related to location and space.
Rayson has been a regular visiting tutor at the major London colleges including the Slade School of Fine Art, Goldsmiths, University of London, and Wimbledon College of Art, in addition to visiting and lecturing at major art colleges across the UK. His continued involvement with art education and supporting emerging artists is driven by a genuine fascination with creating dynamic cultures where creative minds are collectively supported and enabled to explore their artistic potential, always asking the question ‘What if?’
In 2010 David Rayson and his team successfully relocated the Painting programme into purpose-built studios in Battersea, following several years of planning and consultation with the architects Haworth Tomkins, with the Sackler Building winning a RIBA award in 2010. Rayson and his staff staged an inaugural exhibition that officially opened the Battersea studios in 2009, with opening speeches from Iwona Blazwick (Whitechapel Art Gallery), Rector Paul Thompson and David Rayson. The exhibition showcased 10 years of Painting alumni (1999–2009) and visiting staff including works by George Shaw, Sophie Von Hellermann, Gillian Carnegie, Katy Moran, Varda Cavaino, Christpher Orr, Sam Windett, Elizabeth Price, Jamie Shovlin, Gordon Cheung, Neal Tait and Nigel Cooke. This was accompanied by the publication Sackler Painting Building with essays by David Rayson and Sir Christopher Frayling.