David Marques is a ceramic artist who creates beautifully intricate work for both large-scale art installations as well as collectable objets d’arts. He has worked extensively with prestigious Portuguese porcelain and crystal manufacturer Vista Alegre to create a series of permanent installations for their flagship stores in Lisbon, Porto, Madrid and Barcelona.

 

Born in Switzerland of Portuguese origin, David worked for many years in Geneva’s watch and jewellery industry. He draws on this background in his art, working with painstaking precision at every stage of the making process, from conception through to design and production. Inspired by his rich cultural heritage, David’s work reinterprets the traditional and familiar in new and surprising ways. For the Vista Alegre commission David reimagined some of the company’s signature designs as a series of tiles made in relief that hang together to form a huge wall of porcelain, revealing the true beauty and scope of this raw, strong and translucent material. His work was showcased at Maison et Objet in Paris and at Ambiente in Frankfurt in 2014.

 

David graduated from Central St Martins in 2013 with a 1st Class BA Hons in Ceramic Design. His graduation showpiece was a collection of clocks based on the traditional Swiss cuckoo clock design. Each clock was intricately made from porcelain to emphasise the transient and fragile nature of time. The project was shortlisted for CSM’s prestigious Nova Award, reserved each year for the college’s most promising graduates, and was exhibited at The London Design Festival and The Islington Contemporary Art & Design Fair. In 2014 he was shortlisted for a University of the Arts London Creative Award. In the same year, he was selected for a studio at London’s renowned creative business hub, Cockpit Arts, where he continues to work on private and public commissions.