Exhibitions
Paul Davies
Tim Olsen Gallery
22 Feb- 11 March 2012
Paul Davies
Pentimento - Art Month
Tim Olsen Gallery
22 Feb- 11 March 2012
Please note: Works may no longer be available as shown and prices may be subject to change to reflect current market value. Please contact the gallery for assistance. Thank you
Paul Davies is well known for his atmospheric paintings that consider the relationship between built and natural environments. He represents notions of dislocation and timelessness by drawing heavily upon American and Australian Modernist architecture and distinctive natural topographies. Davies work looks at both restored and forgotten modernist buildings in a way relevant to today rather than isolating them in their time. In creating this unique style of landscape painting, Paul Davies sights inspiration from some of the world's greatest living artists such as Peter Doig, David Hockney and David Schnell.
The title of Paul Davies? latest body of work describes the distinctive visual effect of layering several stenciled backgrounds upon which a figurative element is juxtaposed. The word Pentimento derives from the Italian Pentirsi, to repent, and yet there is nothing apologetic about the Davies? cultivation of a canvas with sensitive and evocative traces of previous marks. The play between stenciled areas and free hand painting has always been a core component of the artist?s work and in recent years the contrast has been taken to further extremes. Bold, graphic scenes have largely given way to deeply atmospheric works with exquisite passages of painterly, textured surfaces.
In recent shows Davies has exhibited selected framed stencils, coated with a myriad of paint pigment from repeated use. These allow the viewer to consider the artistic process employed in the making of a painting and more importantly serve to demonstrate the intrinsic aesthetic quality of the stencils in their own right. In Pentimento Davies creates a new departure by transforming the fragile and intimate card stencils into bronze, a radical act that both monumentalizes and crystallizes this aspect of his process. In Davies? hand the stencil is no longer a tool or illustration apparatus, it has been elevated to a distinct fine art entity.
Kate Bryan
Head of Contemporary
The Fine Art Society, New Bond Street, London
The title of Paul Davies? latest body of work describes the distinctive visual effect of layering several stenciled backgrounds upon which a figurative element is juxtaposed. The word Pentimento derives from the Italian Pentirsi, to repent, and yet there is nothing apologetic about the Davies? cultivation of a canvas with sensitive and evocative traces of previous marks. The play between stenciled areas and free hand painting has always been a core component of the artist?s work and in recent years the contrast has been taken to further extremes. Bold, graphic scenes have largely given way to deeply atmospheric works with exquisite passages of painterly, textured surfaces.
In recent shows Davies has exhibited selected framed stencils, coated with a myriad of paint pigment from repeated use. These allow the viewer to consider the artistic process employed in the making of a painting and more importantly serve to demonstrate the intrinsic aesthetic quality of the stencils in their own right. In Pentimento Davies creates a new departure by transforming the fragile and intimate card stencils into bronze, a radical act that both monumentalizes and crystallizes this aspect of his process. In Davies? hand the stencil is no longer a tool or illustration apparatus, it has been elevated to a distinct fine art entity.
Kate Bryan
Head of Contemporary
The Fine Art Society, New Bond Street, London