Welcome back to ARTMATTERS: The Podcast for Artists

On this week's episode I'm joined by New York artist David Hornung.

David Hornung is a painter and mixed media artist whose work has been exhibited in the US and UK. Over the course of a long career he has served on the faculties of The Rhode Island School of Design, Indiana University, Skidmore College, Pratt Institute, and Adelphi University. He is the author of Color: A Workshop for Artists and Designers (Laurence King Pub Ltd.), a color textbook. Translated into six languages it is used in art schools around the world. His work is shown at Cynthia Winings Gallery, Elena Zang Gallery, Pulp Gallery, and J.J. Murphy Gallery in NYC.

We recorded this episode early one morning at the JJ Murphy Gallery during his solo exhibition "Continuum."

On today's episode, David and I explore the nuanced terrain of painting practice and philosophy. We discuss the importance of a painting's surface, how he starts a painting and how one reads a painting. David shares his perspective on scale, arguing that painting is an intimate experience rather than spectacle. We trace his six-decade evolution from observational work through post-painterly abstraction, his collage techniques, and his four recent years of pure abstraction. The conversation touches on Henri Matisse, Ad Reinhardt, Fra Angelico, Albert Pinkham Ryder, and Paul Klee. David also talks his love of shapes, collage, a raw edge, painting slower than he is thinking, factual versus fictional painting, and finally, emphasizes the importance of recognizing one's own temperament and painting both honestly and sincerely from that space; which, he argues, is where great paintings come from.

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host: Isaac Mann
www.isaacmann.com
insta: @isaac.mann

guest: David Hornung
www.davidhornung.com
insta: @davidhornungart

workshops: https://www.artfuelstudio.com/scotland-september-2026-hornung
madelineartschool.com/collections/workshops/products/exploring-improvisation-in-abstract-painting?_pos=7&_fid=5184b59de&_ss=c 

Thank you as always to ARRN, the Detroit-based artist and instrumentalist, for the music.