Gold Art Insight
Why do artists use gold leaf?
A material that holds light and meaning
Artists are drawn to gold as a material for both visual and conceptual reasons.
Visually, it brings a surface to life in a way that no other medium does.
The process of working with gold leaf also requires incredible patience, skill and knowledge of how the material behaves. Processes like water gilding have been used since the Byzantine period and require a steep (and expensive) learning curve.
Some artists enjoy that slow and meticulous way of working. Others use it more for the outcome, and use more modern materials that allow more flexibility in the process.
Gold carries cultural weight
Conceptually, gold leaf carries a long cultural memory. It has been used in sacred objects, religious iconography, manuscripts, and historical painting traditions to signify importance, reverence, and permanence. Contemporary artists engage with these associations even when the work itself is secular or abstract.
Roman's use of gold leaf is deliberate in this sense: the material connects the work to a tradition that treats the visible world as part of something beyond what can be measured or quantified.
It does not change over time
Pure gold does not tarnish, corrode, or degrade under normal conditions. A work gilded with genuine 24ct gold leaf will hold its surface character indefinitely, provided the underlayers are stable. This durability is part of why gold has been associated with the permanent and the sacred across so many cultures, it is one of the main materials that resists the passage of time.
This dual nature, material and meaning, gold leaf is the preferred medium by some artists.
In David Roman’s practice, gold leaf is used to express contemplations of human value in a time increasingly shaped by data, productivity and attention extraction. The material becomes a way of reintroducing slowness and presence into that context. It holds visual and historical weight, allowing the work to bring ancient wisdom into contemporary concerns.
Explore more gold art
From smaller format pieces to large-scale paintings, the artwork in the collection is made to reflect the contemporary times. Each piece is signed, documented, and available for collectors in UK and world-wide.
