RACHEL DAVID

Rachel David a female blacksmith, sculptor, and NOCCA graduate born in Maryland forges steel into works referencing the body and landscapes into modern home furnishings. Social and environmental justice and community has inspired a series of contemporary industrial pieces that make metalworking furniture interactive, considerate, comforting and durable. RachelDavid has had multiple museum exhibitions and we are expecting her upcoming show at Metal Museum in Memphis, TN. to be in the Angela King Gallery in 2024.

There is little more visceral and compelling than moving steel. This work is made using traditional and industrial forging operations to massage shapes and forms referencing the body and landscape from steel into home furnishings. It carries concept and craft as coequals. It focuses on social and environmental justice, community, and communication. In its production I consider the many layers of colonization, restraints and expectations across bodies and landscapes.

In the artist’s words: “The work is inspired by my life and body, the landscapes I’ve passed through and the processes of metalworking in which I specialize. The work of furniture is by nature interactive, considerate, comforting and durable. It is an adornment, it is ornament, and it is a relationship. Each creative opportunity is another chance to be challenged as a maker and citizen: a moment to take risks to express feelings and expand understanding of both materials and concepts.”

Born in Maryland, Rachel David is a blacksmith, sculptor, and designer. Her metalwork practice encompasses art, furniture, architectural elements, activism, and gardening. Through community activism and metalwork that references relationships between bodies and landscapes, David investigates issues related to colonization, social, and environmental justice.

Rachel has been a visiting artist at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (LA), The Crucible (CA), and Community-First Forge (TX). She taught at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts (ME), Peters Valley School of Craft (NJ), Appalachian Center for Craft (TN), the New Agrarian School (MT), and Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (IL). Rachel organized and curated Nu Iron Age in (2017) and Meta-Formation (2019- ongoing). and most recently at The Ogden Museum of Southern Art, Louisiana Contemporary Exhibition (2019). She has exhibited work nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions. Her work has been included in several publications, including Ironwork Today 4 and is included in the collections of the City of New Orleans, the Simone Benetton Foundation, and in numerous private collections.