Wolf with a key (2014), life size, carved stone, installed alongside work by Bernar Venet in private collection.
David Teager-Portman (b.1987) is a British born contemporary sculptor. He lives in Bergen, Norway, and has a studio in Nordnes, Bergen city centre at Aldea—Centre of Contemporary Art, Design, and Technology.
Teager-Portman is a figurative sculptor who produces large public works and smaller detailed pieces. He is an alumni of the Royal College of Art, with an exhibition history both in the UK and internationally. His works have been exhibited alongside sculptors including Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Paul Gauguin, Joseph Beuys, Damien Hirst, Alexander Calder, Yves Klein, Tracey Emin, Rachel Whiteread, Carl Andre, Eduardo Paolozzi, Bernar Venet, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Alfred Gilbert, Alexander Kosolapov, and Andy Goldsworthy.
Choosing the losing side (2014) and The last explorer (2014), public sculptures installed in Spitalfields London within the Charnel House vitrine on Bishops Square. The life size polychrome plaster and bronze sculpture previously having been installed in the Threadneedle Prize exhibition, on the Mall, in the City of Westminster central London.
Teager-Portman’s sculptures are figurative, mercurial and quasi-allegorical. His works fabricate contemporary mythologies – detached from our reality like artefacts from lost civilisations, forgotten eras or dream worlds.
Within the making of his work Teager-Portman is specifically interested in the reintegration of archaic processes and the transition between materials. When making his sculptures he often implements successive processes and treatments, involving multiple processes, developing layers of making within each work.
The sculptures he makes look to capture an aura and energy in the work - which feels alive at the the same time as being timeless and grounded in the tradition of sculpture's history.
His sculptures range from life-size figures to detailed smaller-scale pieces. The works often explore estranged meanings; creating characters which express a mixture of direct, as well as ambiguous and duplicitous contexts.
Teager-Portman’s work is concerned with humanity; its hopes and fears, triumphs and failures, its inevitabilities and its desire for permanence.
They left the temples to ruin, stone, 10x10x16cm, 2020
Moon God, bronze, 39x26x30cm, 2019
David Teager-Portman's work has been selected for several national prizes in the UK, including New Sensations at the Saatchi Gallery, The Threadneedle Prize at Mall Galleries, The Coutts Sculpture Prize at Cowley Manor, and the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. Additionally, his work has been featured in various books and publications.
All of his sculptures are created using traditional sculptural techniques and materials. The primary mediums he works with are plaster, bronze, and stone. He is recognised as a specialist in bronze casting, having previously held research and management roles at university foundries within the Russell Group, as well as in the private sector.
Artist CV
Education
Sheffield Hallam University, PhD Art and Design (2027)
Chelsea College of Art, Bronze Foundry Fellowship, 2019
Royal College of Art, MA Sculpture, 2014
Newcastle University, BA Fine Art with First Class Honours, 2010
Awards/Prizes
Museums Sheffield Media Commission Award, 2019, UK
The Gilbert Bayes Scholarship Award, 2018, UK
Making Ways Visual Arts Award, 2018, UK
Threadneedle Prize, (Finalist), 2014, UK
Saatchi Gallery New Sensations, (Longlisted),2014, UK
Open West 2014, UK
Coutts Sculpture Prize, 2013, UK
Open West, 2012, UK
Saatchi Gallery New Sensations, (Shortlisted), 2010, UK
Exhibitions
Lønøy Chalk Works, Bergen, Norway, 2022
Somerset House, Indefinite Perception, London, UK, 2022
Southampton University - Winchester School of Art, Figure/Stone, UK, 2021
The Winchester Gallery, The Derek Hill Collection – Transcription, Winchester, UK, 2020
The Nutshell, Group Show, Winchester, UK, 2019
Hidden Gardens, Outdoor exhibition, Gloucester, UK, 2019
Galerie Sebastien Adrien, Group Show, Paris, FR, 2019
Chelsea College of Art, Fellowship research exhibition, London, UK, 2018
Galerie Sebastien Adrien, #1, Paris, FR, 2017
Adrien/Kavachnina, Du Bronze à la Galerie, Paris, FR, 2016
Adrien/Kavachnina, Summer Show, Paris, FR, 2016
Bishops Square, Spitalfields, Public Commission, London, UK, 2015
Adrien/Kavachnina, Permanent Collection, Paris, FR, 2015
Mall Galleries, Threadneedle Prize, London, UK, 2014
Royal College of Art, Royal College of Art Degree Show, London, UK, 2014
Royal Academy, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London, UK, 2014
Wilson Gallery, Open West, Cheltenham, UK, 2014
Edinburgh Sculpture Court, RCA & ECA, Edinburgh, UK, 2014
Turner Contemporary, Words to be Spoken Aloud, Margate, UK, 2013
Cowley Manor, Cowley Manor Sculpture Exhibition, Cheltenham, UK, 2013
Royal College of Music, Presentation from the Royal College of Music, London, UK, 2013
Royal College of Art, Royal College of Art Drawing Exhibition, Group exhibition, London, UK, 2013
Royal College of Art, Royal College of Art Summer Show, London, UK, 2013
Edinburgh Sculpture Court, RCA & ECA, Edinburgh, UK, 2013
Dyson Gallery, Royal College Dyson Gallery Exhibition, London, UK, 2013
Royal College of Art, Royal College of Art Interim Show, London, UK, 2013
Gloucester Cathedral, Open West, Gloucester, UK, 2012
Departure Foundation, Middle Land:Responses to Drawing, Birmingham, UK, 2012
Royal College of Art, Royal College of Art Drawing Exhibition, London, UK, 2012
The Art Cellar, Art Cellar, London, UK, 2012
The NewBridge Project, Picking Nettles With My Teeth, Newcastle, UK, 2012
Tower House, Sunderland Art Prize, Sunderland, UK, 2012
Frameless Gallery, YBA 2.0 Series, London, UK, 2012
The NewBridge Project (solo exhibition), Viscount, Newcastle, UK, 2011
Berwick Gymnasium, Sculpt It, Berwick upon Tweed, UK, 2011
Moving Gallery (solo exhibition), The Capgras Delusion, Newcastle, UK, 2011
Saatchi Gallery, New Sensations: The House of the Nobleman, London, UK, 2010
Jaggedart, Exchanging Space, London, UK, 2010
The Old Truman Brewery, Newcastle University London Degree Show, London, UK, 2010
Newcastle University, Newcastle University Degree Show, Newcastle, UK, 2010
Globe Gallery, Between Us and This, Newcastle, UK, 2010
Hangar 51, Dionysus, Newcastle, UK, 2010
Nightmare within a dream, plaster, 50x30x25cm, 2018
Original works, plaster and bronze editions, as well as private and public commissions, are available directly from the studio of David Teager-Portman. Please use the contact email or enquiry form at the bottom of the page to get in touch with any messages regarding purchases, pricing, or commissions.
Research and Education
David Teager-Portman is currently undertaking doctoral research into traditional sculptural processes and the ways in which making contributes to the aura of a sculpture.
He has previously held research and teaching positions at leading UK institutions, including the University of Southampton and Chelsea College of Art. He has also contributed to the education and training of students in bronze casting through the Worshipful Company of Founders at the Royal Academy, the Royal College of Art, and the University of the Arts London.
Teager-Portman has also undertaken consultancy work for both academic institutions and commercial bronze foundries, advising on operational processes and casting techniques.
Photo: Dave Gibbons