David Knopp

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. 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 Council’s 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 2016, Living with Craft Invi­ta­tional 2014, SOFA Chicago 2014 and 2016, Delaware Center for Contem­po­rary Art 2013, 2014, The Center for Art in Wood in 2016, and the Delaware Art Museum Craft Exhi­bi­tion in 2019. One of his sculpted chairs is in the perma­nent collec­tion of the Amer­i­can Vision­ary Art Museum in Balti­more, MD.