Meditations in Color and Feedback

Art by David Foley

David Foley has been a visual artist for most of his life. As a teenager in Tokyo, he was forever changed by Shōzō Shimamoto’s Hole Series and decided then to dedicate his life to art. He soon grew to love outlandish abstract expressionists like Franz Klein and Norman Bluhm, and after relocating back to the States, David played hooky and hopped a train to Chicago to see Picasso’s Afghan Hound sculpture shortly after its installation. Before long, David found himself enrolled in the ambiguously accredited School of Associated Arts in St. Paul. In 1969 he split for the flower power headquarters of the world and attended the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, where conceptualist Terry Fox further expanded David’s perceptions of art’s possibilities. After moving to an artist colony that soon collapsed, David split his time between the Twin Cities and New York. And all this was before he ever touched a guitar,

Process and experimentation are essential ingredients in all of David’s work, from his early drawings in the 1960s to his current sculptures. Trash and scrap materials scavenged from his neighborhood’s alleys and bins form the backbone of many of his pieces as he recontextualizes salvaged parts into unique patterns and textures in the creation of something new. Even his own art can be a source of reclamation and recombination, and it’s not unusual to find strips of his former paintings scattered throughout his studio. About his artistic philosophy, David says, “Ideas are just ideas until they’re realized. And not everything is art.” When possible, David prefers to spend his time meditating with color and feedback.

On view at DUCK DUCK COFFEE, 1830 E 38th St, Minneapolis, Minnesota through July 2026.

Photo of the artist by Matthew Amundsen