Dave Nelson transforms found domestic objects; crockery, kitchen utensils, ironing boards, armchairs, and dining chairs. He animates them through sorting, disassembly and reassembly, position and colour. For example in Dharma Bums, rucksacks are set against a solid pink wall. The title references the Jack Kerouac novel, whose heroes are individuals who embrace a nomadic lifestyle, traveling lightly with only essential belongings carried in a backpack. They reject materialism and conventional societal norms, instead prioritising experiences, freedom, and a connection to nature.

In Who are you? …… and what do you say?, his work for the RCA degree show, he took crockery from house clearance sales and activated these familiar yet often overlooked things by classifying them, displaying them on vintage Formica kitchen tables, on the floor or on shelves. There is a delicate background of colour, either on the table-tops or on the wall. This approach emphasises the unaltered state of the objects, while drawing attention to their emotional weight. They are ordered according to emotional, physical, functional, aesthetic and temporal registers, in a codex of infinite sorting.  

Nelson’s practice allows meditation on the intimate relationship between objects and the human psyche, illuminating how our attachments to things shape our existential and social experience. It prompts contemplation on the significance of material possessions, their journey from utility to relic and the enduring imprint of the past on the present, leading to the consideration of broader societal themes, such as consumerism, materialism, the cycle of acquisition and disposal and the environmental impact of our consumption habits.

Nelson was removed from Art class at fourteen to focus on academics, earning a degree in Mathematics and had a successful commercial career. He later taught himself to draw and paint as a way of being with and encouraging his children. In 2015, he took voluntary redundancy to pursue art full-time, transitioning from representational to abstract painting and contemporary sculpture, supported by education at Turps Banana Art School and an MA in Sculpture at the Royal College of Art.