Paul Davies
There are such seductive qualities in the paintings of Paul Davies – the modernist architecture, the curvilinear shapes, pastel colours and mirrored reflections in pools – drawing together beautiful buildings and landscapes. These are devoid of people, yet are places that we are drawn into, our eyes exploring their kaleidoscopic aesthetic, going where we physically cannot. Their ability to seduce underscores the depth of their artisanal craft, their conceptual rigour, and the way they convey the uncertain power of connections across continents. In a way his work has also become a conduit between places – born 1979 and educated in Sydney, Davies spent a key part of his career resident in Los Angeles (USA). Now living in Sydney, his practice continues to attract international attention.
Davies’s working process is driven by the architectural and natural environments he has encountered – in places as diverse as France, California, Arizona and Australia. These images are processed extensively through a range of media, then painted on canvas, with other locations overlaid. As a result, the final image is not a record of any one place, but a hybrid, a fiction, an imaginative merge of geography and culture that nonetheless, remains true to the places that inspire him.
After studying in Sydney, Davies graduated with a Masters from the University of NSW College of Art and Design (2014). Institutional collections include The J.Paul Getty Museum, Palm Springs Art Museum, University of California, Irvine Institute and Museum for Californian Art, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Laguna Art Museum and the Crocker Art Museum (all USA). His work has also been acquired by the Soho House club (LA, New York, West Hollywood, Mumbai and Barcelona). Australian collections include Artbank, Geelong Gallery (VIC), McClelland Gallery and Sculpture Park (VIC), Macquarie University (NSW), Maitland Regional Gallery (NSW), Sydney Living Museums, Museum of Brisbane, HOTA (QLD), USC Art Gallery (QLD) and Bond University (QLD). Residencies include Cité internationales des arts, Paris, Taliesin West at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture in Phoenix, Artspace Sydney, and the NG Creative Residency Provence, France. His most recent institutional solo exhibition was Golden Days at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (2020).
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