Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Dave Stewart graduated from Emily Carr University of Art and Design in 2009 with a bachelor’s degree in visual arts and a focus on painting. Over the next eight years, Dave continued his painting practice while teaching English as a second language in South Korea and China. In 2022, David completed his masters degree at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

Dave’s current work draws inspiration for a variety of historical and contemporary painters, with Pierre Bonnard, Eric Fischl, Peter Doig, and his old painting instructor, Ben Reeves, coming to mind. His thesis exhibition, “Wild Life”, features paintings based on an archive of photographs Dave collected during his undergraduate studies at Emily Carr. Dave’s practice is focused on interrogating notions of masculinity and the settler’s gaze in western landscape painting.