BFA MA (B. 1954 – Colorado, USA)
David Maes Gallegos is an American painter whose work is grounded in a sustained investigation of light, atmosphere, and the horizon as a site of transition. Across more than five decades, his practice has evolved from early American road and landscape paintings to the constructed luminosity of Las Vegas night scenes, through materially driven oil-and-sand works, and into atmospheric landscapes developed in Hawai‘i.
David Maes Gallegos received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree With Distinction from the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1976, where he was awarded two full-tuition portfolio scholarships. During this period, he worked as a chromist for noted antique restorer Arlyn Petersen in San Francisco, where he handled and delivered significant works of art to prominent collectors. This experience provided rare, firsthand exposure to masterworks by artists such as Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Bonnard, Mondrian, and Rembrandt, including a private viewing of Matisse’s Woman with a Hat with Elise Haas prior to its donation to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
In 1979, Gallegos earned his Master of Arts degree from San Francisco State University, studying with painter Robert Bechtle.
He was given his first one-person exhibition at Marshall–Myers Gallery in San Francisco in 1978. From 1978 to 1990, he exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions throughout Northern California. During this time, he was invited to work with master Tamarind lithographer Ernest DeSoto at his San Francisco workshop.
In 1984, Gallegos created No Defense Against Nuclear Weapons – Art for Peace, a major lithographic work addressing nuclear disarmament. Posters from this nine-plate lithograph were distributed to members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives.
A pivotal period in the mid-1980s included a residency at St. Anne’s Convent in Evergreen, Colorado, where Gallegos produced the monumental St. Anne’s Cross Series. These large-scale works were awarded the High Merit Award at the Interfaith Forum on Religion, Art and Architecture at the Judah L. Magnes Museum in Berkeley, California.
In 1990, Gallegos entered into a multi-year contract with Zephyr Cove Publishing (1990–1995; 2000–2003), during which his work was exhibited extensively throughout Japan, including Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Sendai, Morioka, and Fukuoka. This period resulted in the acquisition of hundreds of original paintings and the production of multiple print editions distributed internationally.
Gallegos’ work has been featured in Architectural Digest, Artweek, Art in America, and The Encyclopedia of Living Artists, among numerous other publications.
He currently lives and works in Kailua Kona, Hawai‘i, where he continues a daily painting practice and is also known as Kawika.