David Byrne

David Byrne works from New York, where he has lived since co-founding Talking Heads in 1975. The visual practice — drawings on paper, inflatable installations, embroidered upholstery, PowerPoint as art medium — runs parallel to the music, driven by the same appetite for elevating the everyday into something iconic.

The work has included large-scale public installations like Tight Spot (2011), an inflatable with audio, and Playing the Building (2005), which turned a building into an instrument. His drawings, often pencil on paper with deadpan titles like Morally Repugnant and Doggie Chew Toy, approach figuration with the same formal curiosity he brings to performance.

Byrne studied at MICA and RISD in the early seventies, focusing on photography, video, and performance. The visual work has been exhibited since the nineties and belongs to collections including the Denver Art Museum. He continues to move between disciplines without announcing any hierarchy among them.