David Mach RA is one of the UK’s most recognised and respected artists working in contemporary art today. Known for his dynamic and imaginative large scale collage, sculpture and installations using a wide range of materials, including coat hangers, pins, tyres, newspapers, matches and magazines. 

'Full Metal Jacket' is an exceptional work whose sensuous organic form is covered in thousands of nails and screws. Both irresistibly tactile but also cold and protective this outer shell seems to encase the precious inner form. This inner form derives from the large sculptural pieces of driftwood the artist enjoys finding on the beaches of Scotland after a storm and are smoothed and carved by the elements over many years at sea. The title Full Metal Jacket refers to the casing of a bullet but also pays homage to the war film Full Metal Jacket, 1987 directed by Stanley Kubrick.

David Mach established his reputation in the 1980s with a series of increasingly ambitious sculptures and installations like 1983's Polaris, a life-size representation of the nuclear-powered submarine made from tyres, at London's Hayward Gallery. Never content in making ‘easy’ art, Mach continuously challenges not only his physical ability but gravity and perception. He revels in the challenge of the physically demanding character of his works, siting that ‘hard graft never hurt anyone,’ and attributing his need to make physically demanding pieces as a response to growing up in the industrial region of Fife, Scotland. For Mach, the act of making is just as important as the finished article as he strives for a need to overcome the ‘Bohemian’ idea of the artist with their brush and chisel.

Born in Methil, Scotland in 1956, Mach graduated from the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee in 1979 before moving onto study at the Royal College of Art, London in 1982. He is a former Turner Prize nominee and was elected a Royal Academician in 1998. Throughout his career Mach has held numerous teaching positions within the art world and was appointed Professor of Sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts in 2010. As well as exhibiting internationally in such locations as London, New York, Dubai and Hong Kong; his work is held in numerous prestigious public and private collections around the world. Mach lives and works in London. David Mach is represented by Pangolin London.