David Cone was born in 1950 in Augusta, Georgia. He received a BFA degree in 1972 from Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and attended the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, doing postgraduate work in photography and design from 1972–1973. Cone joined the photorealist movement in the late 1970’s and rapidly became a prominent painter of the genre. Cone’s work focuses primarily on Art Deco period cinemas in rural America.

His work has been represented in landmark survey shows including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts exhibit “Contemporary American Realism since 1960,” the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum’s “Visions of NYC: American Paintings, Drawings, Prints of the 20th century,” and “American Realism and Figurative Art: 1955–1990,” organized by the Miyagi Museum of Art, Miyagi, Japan. More recently, Cone’s work has been included in the 2012–2017 show “Photorealism: 50 Years of Hyperrealistic Painting” at the Kunstalltübingen throughout Europe and the United States; “Four Decades of Photorealism from the Louis K. and Susan P. Meisel Collection,” Mana Contemporary Art Center, Jersey City, New Jersey; “Still Life: 1970s Photorealism,” Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; “Photorealism The Sydney & Walda Bestoff Collection,” The New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana; “From Lens To Eye To Hand Photorealism 1969 To Today,” Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York and “American Photorealism,” The National Museum, Krakow, Poland. Cone’s work is represented in numerous private and public collections.