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Kate Davis

Place of birth Chesham Bucks
Country of residence United Kingdom

Kate Davis is internationally recognised for her extraordinary sculpture, film and drawing. A recent body of work considers the relationship between the artist and the iconographic female muse as manifested in the sculptural works of Bernini, Donatello and other great masters. These detailed studies are created by piercing the drawing paper from the back giving them an illusory, delicate quality. The subtle pin-pricked surface creates a texture and evident labouring reminiscent of the tight needlework practiced by women in previous centuries, confined to social mores and expectations. Davis’s work quite literally penetrates this activity and thus involves us in a far more complex dialogue.

Davis has also been working on a series of drawings, 24 Hours without You, using nail polish painted on glass over a period of time to create singular durational drawings. Each bottle of nail polish represents 1 hour, each work takes 24 hours and 7 pieces of work will be made, representing 1 week, the week where a woman waits for lover to return. When painted on glass, upright the drips form “tears”, becoming more noticeable as the sheet of glass fills with colour.
Davis’s work continually affirms the presence of the subject. In crossing-crossing ( Frankfurt 2002) the female character centres herself on the bridge, mid way between two sides of the city, herself at a point of no return. She is the pivot and the backbone of the bridge, she is there so that we don’t have to be. Davis’s drawings create a similar dialogue with the materials and with the viewer, she completes the circle of void and completion.

Exhibitions: 2005 Target (London) Economist Plaza; 2002 Frankfurt; 2001 University Gallery Essex; 2000 Milch; 1998-97 Newlyn Art Gallery, South Hill Park, Bracknell; 1989 Whitechapel Art Gallery.

Exhibitions KATE DAVIS 'LULL', 13.Mar - 04.May.08, Fred, Drawn Apart East, 21.Jun - 22.Jul.07, Contemporary Art Projects, Fosterart Summer Exhibition 2005, 06.Jul - 10.Sep.05, Contemporary Art Projects

Publications TATE ETC. Issue 9 - Spring 2007, 2007

Links Fred

 

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