Pioneer Matches, December 2020, 2020

David Cass was born in Edinburgh and brought up in the Scottish Borders.  Cass has developed a multidisciplinary practice which explores landscape, architecture, environmental change and the passage of time through an inventive combination of painting, sculpture and found materials. He graduated with First Class Honours from Edinburgh College of Art in 2010 and was awarded the Royal Scottish Academy’s prestigious John Kinross Scholarship to Florence.

Difficult to categorise, Cass works fluidly across media, creating intricate three-dimensional paintings and sculptural assemblages constructed from found objects sourced in flea markets, antique shops and salvage yards throughout Europe. Weathered wood, fragments of furniture, discarded architectural elements and industrial remnants are transformed into richly textured works that blur the boundaries between painting, relief and object. Through these layered surfaces, Cass investigates memory, erosion and the fragile relationship between humanity and the built environment.

Travel and place have long been central to his practice. Florence, Venice and coastal cities threatened by environmental instability have provided recurring inspiration, informing bodies of work that combine historical reference with urgent contemporary concerns. His 2015 exhibition Tonight Rain, Tomorrow Mud reflected on the devastating Florentine flood of 1966, while Pelàda (2017) and Rising Horizon (2019) examined Venice and the existential threat posed by rising sea levels. These projects marked a significant deepening of Cass’s engagement with climate change, ecology and the vulnerability of cultural heritage. Work from the ongoing Rising Horizon series has since been presented in Venice during the Biennale.

Alongside environmental themes, Cass’s work is underpinned by a fascination with material histories and the quiet poetry of found objects. Each fragment carries traces of previous lives and forgotten narratives, allowing the artist to construct works that feel archaeological, architectural and deeply human. His practice balances conceptual rigour with a strong visual and tactile sensibility, resulting in works that are at once contemplative and physically immersive.

David Cass has exhibited extensively across Scotland and internationally, and has produced a series of acclaimed solo exhibitions with The Scottish Gallery since 2011, establishing himself as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary Scottish art.