All photos credited to @slpshoots
Welancora Gallery is pleased to present Trinidad & Tobago, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Brooklyn-based artist King David, on view at the gallery’s temporary project space at 410 Jefferson Avenue, Brooklyn. The exhibition will open with a reception.
Memory, Ritual, and Relationship
At the heart of Trinidad & Tobago lies a deeply personal journey, inspired by David’s first trip to his father’s Caribbean homeland. The series reflects on diasporic memory, Hindu spiritual practices, and the symbolic weight of nature, light, and familial ties. Each painting serves as both ritual and offering, weaving abstraction with lived experience.
One standout work in the exhibition is an abstract homage to Crystal, the cousin of David’s relative Nakkita, who played a formative role in his immersion in Trinidad & Tobago. Crystal introduced him to Hindu practices and shared her spirituality, which resonated deeply with his Jamaican Rasta heritage. Their bond—fueled by conversations over joints and beers about life, art, and her work as an importer of exotic flowers—found symbolic expression in a serendipitous encounter: witnessing dolphins swimming beside the ferry between Trinidad and Tobago.
David describes the painting as “a distillation of that moment, compressed and agitated so that it speaks to the persistence of our complex, beautiful relationship.” The work also incorporates ash from joints smoked during the painting process, echoing the ritual offerings he observed in Hindu prayer ceremonies where Crystal’s devotion was most present.
Screen as Medium, Abstraction as Language
David’s technique transforms the humble window screen into a painterly tool. By pressing paint through the grid, he produces layered surfaces where color fields, gestures, and textures converge. The pixelated gradients and overlapping patterns become metaphors for memory, fluidity, and the blurring of personal and cultural histories.
Incorporating found metals, copper, wood, and plexiglas, the series expands into material explorations of presence, belonging, and healing. Together, these works honor both personal encounters and broader diasporic legacies.
About the Artist
Born in Brooklyn in 1995, King David is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice examines cultural identity, memory, and the metaphysical qualities of light and material. He studied at Gettysburg College and the Marchutz School of Fine Art in Aix-en-Provence, France. An alumnus of The Dalton School and Prep for Prep, he now leads Prep in the Arts, an alumni-driven initiative supporting young artists of color.
David’s work has been featured in solo presentations at Sean Scully’s 447 SPACE and Parasol Projects, and group shows at Welancora Gallery, the Valentine Museum of Art, 17 Frost Gallery, and Kinfolktech. He has exhibited at art fairs including SPECTRUM Miami and The Other Art Fair in Brooklyn and Dallas. His work has been covered by The Brooklyn Rail, White Hot Magazine, and in publications by Gettysburg College, Dalton, and Prep for Prep.
Through evolving experimental techniques and materials, King David continues to shape a visual language that bridges abstraction, spirituality, and cultural memory.
For more follow @kingdavidthalion and site.
