EXHIBITIONS
David Mackay has been exhibiting his work since 1985. His first exhibition was a two-person show, featuring drawings by himself and Leonardo Da Vinci, in a comparison of old and new botanical drawings. This exhibition was part of the University of Sydney's centenary of science graduates celebrations. His work has featured in more than 50 exhibitions since then in prestigious galleries around the world including the Tryon Gallery and the Shirley Sherwood Gallery in London, the Arthur and Janet Ross Gallery in New York, the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wisconsin, the Hunt Botanical Library at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg, the Denver Art Museum, the Japan Museum of Art in Tokyo, Palazzo Lanfranchi in Pisa, Italy and the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens.
David's last solo exhibition was in 2014 at the New England Regional Art Museum in Armidale, NSW Australia. The exhibition, called ‘Seeing the Detail’, was open until 3rd August 2014. In this image he is standing in front of Velvet Underground, a painting making reference to the hidden treasures of the natural world (there are two, blue velvet worms in the centre of the painting - these creatures are usually hidden in the soil and leaf litter, rarely emerging from the underground. There is also a nesting Large-tailed Nightjar camouflaged within the leaf litter).
David's work featured recently in a historical perspective of botanical art in Australia over the last 300 years. The exhibition, Capturing Flora, travelled around Australia. David is pictured here at the New England Regional Art Museum in front of his work.