DAVID KNOPP

About the Artist

  During the mid-seventies David Knopp started working with plywood as his medium. It was an accessible and inexpensive material to use in the self-trained process of stack lamination. It became an expendable resource to experiment with in creating forms. As his work progressed he discovered the linear strata inherent in the medium. Expressing movement with the "strata" became his aim. Knopp creates flowing liquid lines that engage the senses as the eye travels over the contours.    A lifetime Baltimore resident, Knopp attended Essex Community College and Towson University. While studying life drawing, his focus was on the aesthetic qualities in the use of line. He carried this to another dimension and found a connection between drawing and sculpture. His process evolves with a daily routine of envisioning, refining, designing. It takes months to complete a work.    In 2012 Knopp received the Mary Sawyer Baker Artist Award, which included an exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art. He was a recipient of Maryland State Art Councilʼs Individual Artist Award in 2012. In 2013 he was a semi-finalist for the Sondheim Prize. Since then he has been invited to exhibit work throughout Baltimore, DC and Philadelphia metropolitan areas.   Knopp was accepted in juried exhibitions, including Craftforms 2011 through 2022, Living with Craft Invitational 2014, SOFA Chicago 2014 and 2016, Delaware Center for Contemporary Art 2013, 2014, and The Center for Art in Wood in 2016. One of his sculpted chairs is in the permanent collection of the American Visionary Art Museum.

Artist's Statement

David Knopp has explored the aesthetic qualities of line for many years, first with life drawings, then with sculpture. A single line can express gesture and movement, direction and depth on a flat surface. Knopp made his first sculptures with plywood and was surprised to discover the linear strata inherent in the medium. Carving laminated blocks of the wood, Knopp creates flowing, liquid lines that engage the senses as the eye travels over the complicated contours of his objects. The artist prefers an intuitive process, viewing the collaboration between ideas and materials central to his creative output. His creations start with a vision and a rough sketch. There are no defined templates or 3D models or software used. His pieces are functional, but he tends to focus on the aesthetic qualities rather than design principles. Every finished piece is a one of a kind. The constant changes that occur as he works keep the work alive as it morphs into his interpretation. The process is paramount.