David Storey was born in the mining town of Workington, West Cumberland. He attended St Bees School before moving to London to study at Hornsey College of Art. After college, Storey worked initially as a record sleeve designer creating iconic images for leading bands of the 1980s. Since then he has been a full-time painter, reaching audiences across the world.
David Storey's psychologically charged paintings explore a shifting world of half-remembered characters, forgotten places and lost moments. Playing with our appreciation of time, the scenes he represents resonate with our memories of experiences such as childhood holidays - of days on the lake or down by the beach - yet the characters who occupy them could as easily belong to the generations that have come before us. In part, the paintings make us hanker back to some perfect day or better time, but these are not studies in nostalgia, there is also a darker edge here: a sense of something gathering overhead or an unexpected turn in circumstances waiting to enter from off-stage. Here too is a lingering melancholy, a sadness that merges with the still, calming quality of much of the work.