Photo Taken by Kip Craig

Meet David

David B. Abbott is a painter and photographer whose work engages contemporary political and social issues, earning him recognition as a “social realist.” His subjects range widely, addressing the rise and fall of the religious right in the United States, political volatility, and gay and lesbian identity in the aftermath of the HIV crisis, alongside painterly studies of the natural world and unfolding global events. Extensive world travel, combined with photographic documentation and close observation, informs both his acrylic paintings and digital photography, lending the work a distinctive sense of realist immediacy. Abbott documents everyday interactions—found in environments ranging from rural landscapes to urban streets—and translates them into figurative paintings and photographs. His work captures moments of joy, intimacy, tension, resilience, and companionship, often with a subtle, tongue-in-cheek humor that allows subjects to gently reflect on themselves. His digital photography, created using both a Lumix camera and a mobile phone, focuses on surrounding nature, whether encountered in the countryside or in his New York City backyard. Born and raised in the Boston area, Abbott was educated at the Massachusetts College of Art. After moving to New York City in the 1970s, his large-scale color field paintings attracted the attention of galleries and interior designers. In the early 1980s, following the acquisition of his first Olympus camera, Abbott shifted his primary focus to photography, experimenting with the human form. By the 1990s, he returned to painting while working full-time in the nonprofit sector, continuing to travel extensively and incorporate the people, colors, and atmospheres he encountered into his figurative acrylic work. Abbott recently left the non-profit sector and is now working full-time on his art again.
Abbott has exhibited his work in Boston, New York, Key West, Miami, Fire Island, Long Beach, and San Francisco.Web site redesign: Aye Chan SaiPaintings photographed by: Kenneth Marshall