Joe_Davidson

click images to enlarge

6pack, 2008

Scotch tape "™"

6 1/2"x8"x11"

Alpine Landscape (Davis Lake), 2008 Scotch tape "™" on vellum

15"x38"

Alpine Landscape (Mt. Whitney), 2008

Scotch tape "™" on vellum 15"x38"

Joe Davidson

Untitled (Alpine Landscape), 2008, Scotch tape "™" on vellum, 9"x25"

Artist Statement

My body of work consists of sculpture and large scale installations made of cast everyday consumerist objects. These objects are produced in multiples with mundane materials such as scotch tape, paper pulp, and plaster. I try to achieve a level of mass production of the objects even though all are handmade. Most of the work is monochromatic, driven largely by the inherent quality and symbolism of the material used.   I work as if on an assembly line, churning out the same image, looking for eventual meaning. My repetitive and seemingly meaningless actions are explored symbolically as reflections of the passage of time, emotional isolation, and escapist fantasy. The compulsive or obsessive acts required to create the pieces necessitate the omission of other perhaps more traditionally meaningful or useful activities. The viewer is asked to contemplate this notion of what has been lost through the time consuming details of the piece.

There is a qualitative gap, however slight, between the original and the cast object. There is a peculiarity, a lack of life, to a cast object that I find meaningful. There is also autonomy within the cast object, a sense that this is now an object unto itself, separate from the original. It becomes distinct as a new object in the world while referencing its source. It is with these objects that I consider the consuming repetitive acts of daily living. I do not attempt exact replicas of an original object; I create shadows of the original. The work I make responds to the sometimes overwhelming stream of daily chores and consumerist choices we experience in our domestic lives.
Whether the product is a still life created in Scotch tape or a bouquet composed of plaster flowers, I look to the fantastic as a goal in my work. The work is intensely representational in content but without clearly assigned meaning, thus creating a disquiet. In this way I think in a surrealist vein, looking to traditional figures like Eva Hesse and Piero Manzoni and contemporary figures like Robert Gober and Matthew Barney. The juxtaposition of the seemingly simple streamline objects with this disquiet adds a powerful force to the work, again symbolic of the contrast between the emotional life which defines us as humans and the compulsions and minutia that compose our daily lives.

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Education

1995 MFA Sculpture. San Francisco Art Institute. San Francisco, CA.

1992 BFA Sculpture. University of Massachusetts. Amherst, MA.

Select Exhibitions

SOLO

2008

Lawrence Asher Gallery. Los Angeles, CA.

2005

Tatar Gallery. Toronto, Canada.

Compulsive Repetition: (Re)Reading the Object in Space. 18th St Art Center. Santa Monica, CA. Curated by Alma Ruiz, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

scopeNY. Represented with Tatar Gallery, Toronto, Canada.

2004

Haus Gallery. Pasadena, CA.

2001
Off the Floor. Studio Z. San Francisco, CA.

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2009

C.O.L.A. 2009. Department of Cultural Affairs. Barnsdall Art Center. Los Angeles, CA.

2008

Drawing Los Angeles. Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock. Los Angeles, CA

Hokum. Curated by Lauri Firstenberg, LA><ART. Gallery 825. Los Angeles, CA.

Venice Art Walk. Supporting the Venice Family Clinic. Venice, CA.

Penumbra. Curated by James Panozzo, Lawrence Asher Gallery. Gallery 825. Los Angeles, CA.

2007

Haus Guests. Haus Gallery at the Brewery Project. Los Angeles, CA.

2006

From America. Museum of Contemporary Art. Minsk, Belarus.

The Great Indoors. sideSPACE Gallery. Pasadena, CA.

Spaces in Between. Tatar Gallery. Toronto, Canada.

2005

Reconception. Tatar Gallery. Toronto, Canada.

2004

scopeMiami. Represented with Tatar Gallery, Toronto, Canada.

FADA Art Exhibition. Represented with Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA.

Art Chicago. Represented with Jonathan Novak Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA.

Milton Hershey School Art Museum. Hershey, PA.

Brevard Museum of Art and Science. Melbourne, FL.

McColl Center for Visual Art. Charlotte, NC.

2003

Icons. Transport Gallery. Los Angeles, CA.

Tactile. Transport Gallery. Los Angeles, CA.

The Curatorial Eye. Sonoma Museum of Visual Art. Santa Rosa, CA.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Rental Gallery. Los Angeles, CA.

Cultural Narratives. Juried Exhibition. Korean Cultural Center. Los Angeles, CA.

J Wayne Stark University Ctr Galleries. College Station, TX.

Ellen Noel Art Museum. Odessa, TX.

2001

Traywick Gallery. Berkeley, CA.

AWARDS/HONORS

2008      C.O.L.A. Fellowship. Department of Cultural Affairs. Los Angeles, CA.

2003      Juried Exhibition. Korean Cultural Center. Los Angeles, CA

2000      Juror’s Award. Annual Exhibition. Berkeley Art Center. Juried by Clara Kim.

1994    Internship with David Ireland. San Francisco Art Institute. San Francisco, CA.

1995      Cadogan Fellowship. San Francisco Foundation. San Francisco, CA. Sculpture.

1994-96 SFAI Grant. San Francisco Art Institute. San Francisco, CA.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2005

The National Post. Toronto, Ontario. “Outrageous Art Behaviour: Caught in Tape”.

By RM Vaughan. 29 October.

The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ontario. Reviews. By Gary Michael Dault. 29 October.

Los Angeles Times. Reviews. By Leah Ollman. 19 Aug.

2000

Bay Area Guardian. “Critic’s Pick”. By Glen Helfand. May.

Bay Area Citysearch.com. “Editorial Profile”. By Harry Roche. April.

Urban View. “Review”. By Jill Moffet. April.

1999

Artweek. “Reviews”. By Frank Cebulski. September.

1998

Budapest Week. “From San Francisco to Budapest”. By Krisztina Cseko. 22-28 Jan.

1997

Artweek. “One Night Shows in San Francisco”. By Bruno Fazzolari. February.

1996

SF Weekly. “Reviews”. By Dave Eggers. 28 Aug-3 Sept.