b. 1978
Dave Pettengill was born and raised in New England. Growing up in the surrounding landscape greatly influenced his early artistic style. From landscapes and still life paintings, he moved into more illustrative and symbolic work at The Rhode Island School of Design in the late 90s. After, he spent a great deal of time moving around the country including San Diego and time with family on the West Coast. After returning to Portland and the seacoast area, he moved to Philadelphia in 2013. He spent seven years in Philly, during which time he received his masters degree. This intensive studio time allowed his work to expand into sculpture, photography, installation and street art. He returned to the seacoast area in 2020, and now resides in Dover. His work has been shown in New England and beyond; including but not limited to NYC, Philadelphia, Chicago, and LA
“In considering works for “NFS” chose to focus on imagery that is in burgeoning stages. Often when making work I have several unrelated images or objects that need a time, location, circumstances or other external factors to begin to weave them together. To thread these images together, I used the theme of the show, ‘not for sale’… but rather than showing works that I do not intend to sell, I applied titles to the work that reflect some aspects of my work that are inextricable (not for sale) from my process. The titles perform the dual function of shedding new light on imagery that is only in sketch form, while also wrapping together all the unrelated works under my new interpretation of the theme of the exhibition. The imagery acts a source material, sketches for other works, talking points, notes on future work and materials, and finished material for the “NFS” exhibition. The pieces are complete for the show, but also operate as seeds for an infinite number of new works.”
Q. If you could offer your younger self any advice at the start of your artistic career, what would it be?”
A. “I am always particular about the people I solicit input from… and if I were me, I would never take advice from myself.”