A Private Universe:

A Statement about David Gregory

David Gregory was born in Dromana on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula and currently resides in nearby McCrae.

His passionate intrigue with quirky, mysterious and unique imagery can be traced as far back as kindergarten. His friends would draw a picture of their dad’s head with stick-like legs poking out from the neck, whilst Gregory produced a detailed painting of a scuba diver riding on a giraffe’s back.

In his final year of secondary school, he was awarded the prestigious Peninsula School Hazel Sholl Art Prize for excellence in painting. Shortly after, he received a “Special Distinction” for Higher School Certificate Art. (One of only five in the state)

He studied tertiary art at Melbourne State College in the late 1970’s, (now Melbourne University), under the guidance of many prominent art lecturers and artists, culminating in a sell-out exhibition in his fourth year. He graduated with Honours and was accepted in to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology to study his Master’s degree in ceramic sculpture but was unable to proceed due to teaching commitments.

Since then he has contributed to twenty-eight exhibitions throughout Australia and is represented in private collections in Australia, Great Britain, The United States of America and Hong Kong.

Gregory’s paintings are often conceptual, relying on metaphors and invented landscapes to capture the attention of the viewer, who in turn is urged to guess at a meaning which may suit them personally. His paintings are not depictions of a specific geographic region, but more an evocation of the essence of a place, combined with the artistic licence of his whimsical imagination.

He has taught art in secondary schools for over twenty years and currently teaches at Mount Eliza Secondary College, Victoria, Australia. 

My Private Universe:

A Statement by David Gregory

The sculptural themes have spilled over into my paintings and drawings - an area where I am permitted more freedom to express ideas, concepts and spiritual notions which "scratch at the door" of my mind.   The images are simply always there, emerging and evolving through connected themes. Much of my work is invented mythology where  various elements seem to irrepressively reappear and I find myself accommodating them, like the custodian of a shelter for wayward thoughts. Some locations depicted are geographically nowhere in particular, but may be reminiscent of anywhere from the Australian outback, a Tuscan field, a curtained stage, or another planet.  They are often evocations of a district, capturing the lingering, transient qualities which fascinate me - places where "reality" collides with the  artistic licence of my whimsical imagination.

David Gregory

December 1999.

David Gregory's Resume