StoreDavid Spiher is an artist who lives in the East Bay and makes art—currently producing prints and paintings—at the Compound Studios in Oakland. “I have been an assistant for a number of artists, designers and crafts people so I am really used to helping others make work. However, very often I have found it really hard to make my own, to justify my own choices, sometimes even to myself,” Spiher says. As a way to free himself from these self-imposed restrictions, he has shifted personae depending on subject matter and interest in various media. From 2004 to 2009, he produced hand-painted pornographic ceramic plates as Virginia Trembles. As David Six, he has been producing figurative painting and print work. His current body of work centers on his husband Dr. Ralph Thurlow and his struggle with HIVAIDS Neuro Dementia. "On a lot of levels I equate my experience of HIV/AIDS—for myself, my husband, lovers, friends and generation—with the flooding of New Orleans and the tsunamis in Indonesia and Japan. It sounds crazy because it was crazy… is crazy."
If I'm not serving you visually in my work -all the words in the dictionary will not make it visible for you.
David Spiher, 807 Paradise Blvd, Hayward, CA 94541 davidspiher@yahoo.com
OAKLAND/SAN FRANCISCO
Remembering to Forget, The Clocks, 2018, Strut, San Francisco
Breaking Code, Intersections of Queerness & Madness, durational wall drawing, August 2017 SOMarts Cultural Center, San Francisco;
Falkirk Galleries Fall Open Juried Exhibition 2016, San Rafael;
Hayward Arts Council Open Juried Show 2016,
Last Men Standing, Sunday special section & 66 min documentary on long term AIDS survivors, featured subject, San Francisco Chronicle 2015-2016,
Inchoate, a 2 person show Compound Gallery, Oakland 2016
Southern Graphics Convention/San Francisco & the East Bay 2014, linocuts demo San Francisco/Oakland
Art In A Box 2013 member, Compound Gallery, Oakland
Featured Artist A&U Magazine, profile July 2012
Incline Gallery/Papergirl 2012
Compound Gallery Group Shows 2009-2014
Compound Gallery Coming and Going: Greetings from Limboville
2010 Magnet (as Virginia Trembles) Blush: Wall to Wall 2008
NEW YORK
Barbara Ann Levy Gallery, Cherry Grove, Jason Seder and David Spiher 2005
Studio 37, Open Studios 1996-2005
Museum of the City of New York, wall drawings for The New New York Woman 2003
Barbara Ann Levy Gallery, Cherry Grove, The Oddest Thing 2002
Chelsea Eyes/Visual AIDS, Three from the File, 2001
Barbara Ann Levy Gallery, Cherry Grove, Abstract Paintings 2001
Secret Ingredient, Hoboken, Visitor 2001
Catherine Moore Fine Art, Stripes 1999
Gallery @ 49, Clinton/Hell’s Kitchen 1999
Visual Aids Postcards from the Edge 1998-2018
2012 Gay City News – Art Critic 2004-2005 Nobel Tile & Vessel – Ceramic Production 1994-
1996 Evandale – Ceramic Design 1995 Susan Horton – Production Hand Weaver 1994 –
1995 Performance Workshops – Amy Pivar 1999, Tim Miller 1997 and 1998 Gay Men’s Performance Workshop 1997-1999
BOSTON
South End Open Studios 1992-1994
Artkammer, Community Identity 1993
UMass, GALA Shows 1987-1991
Billy’s Provincetown, Washes 1990
Fort Point Open Studios 1989-1991
Cliff Roberts-Production Hand Weaver 1992-1994
Jill Rosenwald – Ceramic Production 1993-1994
Performance Workshop – Holly Hughes 1994
COLUMBUS
ArtReach, Every Members Show, 1986
The Ohio State Fair 1984
Akron Art Institute, All Ohio Open 1982 HM
The Ohio State University, Thesis Show Open the Door 1982 Graduate Student Shows 1981-1982 MFA – The Ohio State University 1982 Larry Millard, Bruce Chao, and Carolee Schneeman
IThe John Herron School of Art Alumni Drawings 1988 Senior Show 1980, Student Shows 1977-1979 BFA – The John Herron School of Art/Indiana University at Indianapolis 1980 Robert Berkshire, Peg Feirke, and Steve Mannheimer