David J Cunningham, 1983 | Urban life painter

David Cunningham is a traditional oil painter based out of Northeast Minneapolis.

David Cunningham's interest in art began early due in part to thei nfluence of his older brother and a cousin who are also artists.

When David was 16 he started attending classes part-time at The Atelier Studio Program of Fine Art a traditional art school that ad heres to astringent French academic tradition as well as taking classes at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.

After graduating high school David entered a four year apprenticeship at The Atelier.

After completing the program David took up studying landscape painting while living abroad in southern Argentina and became tuned into the 19th century tonalist painters George Inness and James Mcneill Whistler.

Their atmospheric paintings inspired him to focus on the rural landscape as a way to convey emotion to the viewer.

David moved back home and continued toward that goal for several years painting the landscapes he had seen growing up around his family’s cabin in Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest.

After working in that vein for several years David moved back to Minneapolis and became interested in street photography and street painting.

He developed a large body of work focusing on urban landscapes with the aim to communicate traditional techniques with a more contemporary subject matter.

I must first respond to the subject and be filled with emotion to ward that subject. My approach must be so sincere and translucentthat the technique is forgotten and all that can be seen is the subjectshining through. My work is an attempt from first to last to put mythoughts and feelings about life freely and truthfully on record. Life and art can not be disassociated; it is a personal affair frombeginning to end.