David Armstrong

David Armstrong (1954 Arlington, Massachusetts – 2014 Los Angeles) attends, in 1974, the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University (Boston) intending to paint. He turns to photography, resulting in what later would be coined ‘The Boston School’ of photography alongside Nan Goldin, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Mark Morrisroe, Jack Pierson, Tabboo!, Gail Thacker and others. In 1977, Armstrong moves to New York City and has his first exhibition at Hudson Gallery, together with Nan Goldin. He shoots the production stills for Eric Mitchell's film Underground U.S.A (1980), starring Patti Astor, Rene Ricard, Jackie Curtis and Jedd Garet. In 1981, he is part of New York/New Wave at P.S.1, an extensive group exhibition featuring artists, poets, graffiti artists, photographers, and No Wave musicians (curated by Eric Mitchell). In 1983 his ex-partner Kevin McPhee dies of AIDS. In 1989 Armstrong is part of the influential exhibition Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing at Artists Space in New York, curated by Nan Goldin. In 1992, he moves to Berlin, where Nan Goldin is guest of the DAAD Residency. In the 1990s, Armstrong's work is shown in several exhibitions, at, among others, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York City, Galerie Bruno Brunnet, Berlin, Museum für Gestaltung, Zürich, Whitney Biennal, New York, Galerie Scalo Zürich and New York, Yvon Lambert, Paris, ICA Boston, Boston and Judy Goldman Fine Art, Boston. He finds in Walter Keller of Scalo Verlag Zürich an important supporter who publishes three of his books: A Double Life. David Armstrong / Nan Goldin (1994), The Silver Cord(1997) and All Day Every Day (2002), edited by the Zürich film historian Martin Jaeggi. After his death in 2014, the Estate of David Armstrong is established and his work is inventoried by Colleen Doyle and Elizabeth Whitcomb together with Tess Çetin, Nicole Skibola and Linnea Vedder.