David Watkins

David Watkins is a visual artist who works predominantly in painting and installation in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. His work investigates connections and hidden networks, ranging from global supply chain infrastructure to the mycorrhizal 'Wood Wide Web'.

He completed a Professional Doctorate in Fine Art at the University of East London in 2024, and holds a BA in Fine Art, painting with sculpture, from the University of Wolverhampton (1997). In 1996 he undertook a six-month study exchange at the University of Buffalo, New York.

Watkins has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. Selected exhibitions include 'Networks, Infrastructure and Precarity' at Way Out East Gallery, Docklands (2024); 'Sea Change' at The Exchange, Newlyn (2023); 'Sensing Precarity' at Stone Space Gallery, Leytonstone (2022); the Dakar Biennale OFF, Senegal (2016); and 'Art/Science/Life' at Ipswich Art School Gallery (2016). He has shown regularly in Southend-on-Sea at Focal Point Gallery, the Beecroft Art Gallery, Metal and The Old Waterworks, as well as at 'Reliquie', Cologne (2019) and Lapinlahti Art Museum, Finland (1998).

He is a trustee at The Old Waterworks, an artist-run studio and charity in Southend-on-Sea.