Originally a painter and installation artist in London before moving to Los Angeles where he created innovative work in entertainment and advertising, David uses technology to explore time, memory, and impermanence.
After being treated for a serious illness, he returned to his art practice in 2018, fusing his instincts as a painter with his experience as a filmmaker in video based work, site-specific projection, virtual and extended reality, photography incorporating AI, lenticulars, and 2.5D printing.
David had his first exhibition at Goldsmith’s College of Art at 14, two years after he built his first personal computer. His work is in private collections in the U.S. and Europe. Previous technology sponsors include Varjo, LG Electronics, and Panasonic.
Selected Articles
The Art Diary October 2024 — Artlyst
MOCA London is featuring Van Eyssen’s work with its first augmented reality exhibition ‘Encounter’. Visitors will enter what appears to be an empty gallery except for a QR code. Once they scan the QR, it will allow them to download the Hoverlay app on their phone and see the work in real-time. On the screen, they will discover that a life-sized car crash occupies the space! Read More
London Artist Captures Blind People’s Hidden Dreams Using Mixed Reality Headsets — RNIB
The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), the UK’s leading sight loss charity, has collaborated with Varjo, the global leader in professional-grade virtual and mixed reality hardware and software, and London-born artist David Van Eyssen, to present an exceptional art installation to be revealed during the week of the Frieze art fair in London, 11-15 October 2023. Read More
In Conversation: The Next Generation of Interactivity and Storytelling — USC Center on Public Diplomacy
In Conversation: The Next Generation of Interactivity and Storytelling, with David Van Eyssen, a pioneer in new forms of art, technology and storytelling. As the world enters the next phase of the internet, deeper digitization continues to change the way people are connected and how they experience their life-worlds. Read More
The Private Life of Public Transport - An Immersive Art Installation by Artist David Van Eyssen — RNIB Connect
The Private Life of Public Transport is a new immersive art installation by Artist David Van Eyssen using virtual and mixed reality along with sound and light to open the door on the life, thoughts and dreams of a number of blind and partially sighted people to everyone. Read and Listen
David Van Eyssen Profile — Mr. Feelgood
His pieces are intricately woven together, expertly engineered, crafted with the quality level of a dedicated artisan. They are dreamy, surreal, immersive and hauntingly beautiful – part reality, and part possibility. Read More
LG Advanced Display Technologies Provide Canvas For Unique 4K Multimedia Art Exhibit
Noted Video Artist David Van Eyssen Creates 'Projections' Art Exhibit Using LG CineBeam 4K Projectors and LG OLED TVs Read More
David Van Eyssen Interview — I Am Rogue
David Van Eyssen is an online artist who was ahead of his time. He began experimenting with interactive storytelling before there was technology that even existed to house his ideas. Read More
Online Sci-Fi Show RCVR Breaks Out of the 'Tyrannical Rectangle — Streaming Media
David van Eyssen hadn’t heard of Machinima when he wrote RCVR, which would go on to become an enormous hit for the online network. In fact, he only got in touch with the company by chance. Read More
Exclusive Interview: RCVR creator and director David Van Eyssen talks about his new sci-fi web series — Assignment X
The project was conceived by director David Van Eyssen (who also serves as co-scripter and producer). It’s designed as a multi-platform experience extending beyond jus the series itself and into a whole labyrinth layer of corresponding websites that unlock even more content for a deeper understanding of the RCVR world and UFO phenomenon as a whole. Read More
The Art To Being David Van Eyssen — Forbes
Recently, I went to an art opening in Santa Monica, where a doorman stood guard, clipboard in hand like at some private party or club. A spiral staircase led to a basement gallery where new works by David Van Eyssen were on display that combined film and still images layered upon each other and interacting in various ways, projected on screens or shown on flat screen TVs. Read More
Seeing Double: Mirrors in Art - In Pictures — The Guardian
Artists have long been drawn to mirrors’ reflective surfaces. More than 150 artworks have been collected in a new book, drawing together sculptures, paintings, installations, photographs and more. Read More
This Razor-Thin Table Inspired an Otherworldly Choreography Routine — Surface Magazine
The table’s otherworldliness resonated with video artist David Van Eyssen, whose head immediately went to the clouds. “I was struck by the table’s startlingly thin profile, which suggests an endless horizon provoking images of a barren planet—a clean slate on which life could begin again,” he muses. Thus, his latest project was born. Read More
Luminex 2.0: Outdoor Art Exhibit Of Projected Realities — On The Trend
Arriving on a metro bus and immersing myself within the public art scene, I attended “LUMINEX 2.0” to explore an award-winning art exhibition displayed in the South Park District of DTLA. Read More
The Book Paintings of David Van Eyssen — Director, Fondation Maeght
Interestingly, David Van Eyssen’s book paintings find their place in the tradition of the anonymous and timeless author who remembers that the book — in this case the painting — is inseparable from religious tradition. Read More
Multitalented and Multisensory — Psychology Today
Producer. Director. Writer. Painter. Multimedia artist. Empath. Synesthete David Van Eyssen uses all of his senses, including the bonus, synesthetic ones, to excel in many mediums. Read More
Artist David Van Eyssen Debuts New Sound and Motion Artwork on LG OLED Gallery TVs
As an extension of my interest in time and memory, I began to think about the data portrait we create by interacting electronically with ourselves and others," said Van Eyssen. "The neural connections we create, and the images we imprint in the systems that surround us." Read More
Could the fall’s best series NOT be on TV? Meet ‘RCVR’ — Variety
With the new fall TV season just underway, the hunt is on for The Next Big Thing. But as you scour the airwaves, it might be worth considering that this could finally be the year that the Web beats TV to the punch? Read More
A Look Back At BMW’s The Hire, Branded Content In The Dark Days Of Online Video — Tubular Insights
Back in 2001, Internet video for me was watching movie trailers, and there was no thought that anything longer, or anything of more substance, would be coming along soon. Read More
Fallon, iBelieve Explore Interactive Entertainment — Shoot
Though they weren’t at liberty to publicly discuss specifics at press time, ad agency Fallon, Minneapolis, and Hollywood-based iBelieve Media have teamed on several interactive assignments. Their endeavors have ranged from new business pitches to a portfolio piece that showcases both companies’ prowess in new media, particularly in terms of creating entertainment fare with sponsorship and promotional opportunities for advertisers. Additionally, Fallon and iBelieve are about to embark on an undisclosed Web-based entertainment project, which they hope to attach to a high-profile client. Read More
New Publication: Mirror Mirror: The Reflective Surface in Contemporary Art
David’s work will be appearing in the latest book by artist-curator-author, Michael Petry. Mirror Mirror, which explores the work of contemporary artists working with reflections, will be published by Thames & Hudson in October 2024.
"David Van Eyssen was a well known new media creator when he became ill. He has said that ‘During several years of cancer treatment, I took photographs of myself with my phone, recording surgeries and side-effects, and using the camera to confirm my existence.’
In recovery, he has gone on to explore his self portraiture practice. For his series, A Slim Volume of Poetry In No Particular Order, he temporarily installed and broke large mirrors across Los Angeles. These startling works hide as much as document, and the viewer must work hard to seek him out. The violence stilled in the fractured image has a clear bodily parallel. Using AI techniques in DisAppearance, sections around the edges of four self portraits were extended until the figures recede into an imagined vista."
1988-91
During these years, Van Eyssen worked in London, L.A. and New York City where he produced bookworks — part encaustic paintings, part sculptures. Books of braille, encyclopedias, and the occasional cheap paperback provided canvasses that were burned, torn, cut, and reconstructed. Installations of multimedia work in abandoned office buildings and warehouses used light and sound pieces to dramatic advantage in empty spaces.
Do It Yourself was a box containing paint, brush, masking tape, and instructions (including an audio tape) for painting a white square. Finally, there were books — photographic documents of the installations. Using ‘cut and collage’ techniques, these began as records of exhibitions, but became pieces in themselves.
