Refuge

July 10, 2010 – August 21, 2010

Open House Hours on Saturday, July 10th:  11:00 AM – 5:30 PM
Reception Hours on Saturday, July 10th:  6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Barbara Davis Gallery, in conjunction with ArtHouston 2010, is pleased to announce the forthcoming exhibition Jay Shinn: Refuge, opening Saturday, July 10, from 6:30 – 8:30 PM.  The exhibition of steel sculpture, projected light, and framed works contemplate the ideas of reality and illusion through light and line.

“Altering the light and surroundings provides for several images from one form. Through all of this, no one image is final. A semifinal stage is where my time with the work ends. The work continues its process.” – Jay Shinn

Jay Shinn: Refuge will be on view through August 21, 2010.

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For more information regarding this exhibition, please email barbara@barbaradavisgallery.com or call Barbara Davis Gallery at (713) 520-9200.

Drawings on the Wall: She Speaks with the Blue Angel

May 14, 2010 – July 3, 2010
Artist Reception:  Friday, May 14, 2010, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

“Drawing is to the fine arts, as poetry is to literature.”

–James Surls, 2010

Barbara Davis Gallery is pleased to announce the forthcoming exhibition James Surls – Drawings on the Wall:  She Speaks with the Blue Angel opening Friday, May 14, 2010, from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM.  This exhibition of new work will include thirteen drawings and an installation of site-specific wall drawings.

James Surls on drawing:

“Drawing is to the fine arts, as poetry is to literature. My drawings are direct and clean, one to one, thought as pure and fresh as snow in the wild. I touch the pencil to the paper with focused intent, a point, a line, curved motion following the eye down a road, across a bridge, through a canyon to a clearing, a place of understanding for the moment. A focused point in time, a reality narrowed to a specific now, and that now being ours for the believing. I believe the spark of “vision,” from the angel touching the earth, it makes me whole and sane, I draw for my soul to keep.”

James Surls – Drawings on the Wall:  She Speaks with the Blue Angel will be on view through July 3, 2010.

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For more information regarding this exhibition, please email barbara@barbaradavisgallery.com or call Barbara Davis Gallery at (713) 520-9200.

April 9, 2010 – May 1, 2010
Artist Reception: Friday, April 9, 2010, 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

One Night Only Performance:  Friday, April 9, 2010 at 7:30 PM

Andrea Bianconi: A Charmed Life (Performance Still from Volta NY 2010)

Barbara Davis Gallery is pleased to announce the opening exhibition of international artist Andrea Bianconi: A Charmed Life, on Friday, April 9, 2010 from 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM. Fresh from his solo exhibition at Volta New York, Bianconi’s A Charmed Life is an exhibition of new installations, sculptures, and drawings with a performance by the artist at the opening night reception beginning promptly at 7:30 PM.

The Italian native explores the dichotomy of the public-self and the private-self through new works that draw upon fantasy and folklore. His sculptures, installations, and drawings read as a dream-like journey that blurs the boundary between the conscious and subconscious and time and space.

In his installation, A Charmed Life, various objects are fastened to hundreds of strings, woolen threads, and wires becoming a waterfall cascading from a single wall-mounted faucet. The delicate objects become divinatory charms that mark the memory of personal experience falling somewhere between materiality and spirituality. It is with this spirituality in mind that the installation becomes the focus of the artist’s performance. Shaman-like, the artist dips his hands into the stream of objects and through a series of sometimes graceful and sometimes forceful movements conducts the flow like an orchestra. Each time an object connects with each other the resulting sound is like the meeting of different realities.

About the artist:

Most recently, Andrea Bianconi had solo exhibitions at Volta New York, at Vernon Projekt in Prague, Casa Gallo, Palazzo Brusarosco Zaccaria in Vicenza, Italy, and at Kiton in New York. Born in Arzigano, Italy, Mr. Bianconi currently lives and works in New York and Milan.

February 19, 2010 – March 27, 2010

Artist’s Talk:  Friday, February 19, 2010, 6:30pm

Artist’s Reception:  Friday, February 19, 2010, 6:30pm – 8:30pm

Barbara Davis Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Mie Olise:  A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks – Departure an exhibition of new paintings, installation, and video.  The exhibition is the culmination of a two-year long journey and is based upon the idea of “departure,” leaving behind all that you know to propel yourself into a free fall of unexpected possibilities in search of a world better than the one you left.  Mie Olise’s heroic paintings of flying ships, houses that travel over land, and falling suitcases speak of the experience of the voyage and call to mind the distance of a journey, the feeling of traveling over land or sea, your body moving through a landscape.

Danish artist Mie Olise recently had a solo museum show with an accompanying catalog at the Skive New Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark.  In 2007 she was a finalist in the Saatchi Gallery Sensation Show, she also just completed the prestigious Skowhegan artist residency in the summer of 2009, and is currently participating in the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in New York.  She graduated with distinction from Central St. Martin’s in London 2007 with an MA in Fine Art.  Currently she lives and works in New York.

Covershot of Danish publication, Magasinet KUNST, 2010.

Mie Olise:  A Fugitive Crosses His Tacks – Departure opens on Friday, February 19, 2010 with an artist’s talk at 6:30 pm with a reception for the artist to follow until 8:30pm. The exhibition closes Saturday, March 27, 2010.

For more information regarding this exhibition, contact JoAnn Park at 713.520.9200.

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Brian Wills: Sugarlounge presents meticulous paintings that explore the intrinsic quality of his materials. Keenly aware of spatial presence, internationally recognized artist, Brian Wills uses string, wood, and varnish in his investigation of color and space invoking ideas drawn from “String Theory.” Executed with an enormous amount of precision, the resulting work is delicate, transcendent, and beautifully disarming. The visual experience is both excitingly dynamic and serenely contemplative.

Exhibition closes Saturday, January 16, 2009.

Brian Wills is a graduate of Denison and Harvard Universities. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions in the US and abroad. Recent shows include Themes and Variations at the Torrance Art Museum, Made in California, Selected Works from the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation and Consequence at Museum 52 in London, and exhibitions with Galerie Michael Janssen in Cologne and Gallery Min Min in Tokyo. Brian Wills has been reviewed in ArtReview, Artweek, and the L.A. Times. In the 2006 issue of the Vanity Fair Art Issue, Wills was listed as a rising star in the L.A. art-scene amid such greats as John Baldessari, David Hockney, and Ed Ruscha.

BRIAN WILLS

SUGARLOUNGE

Artist Reception: Friday, December 4 from 6:30-8:30pm

Friday, December 4, 2009 – Saturday, January 16, 2010

Barbara Davis Gallery is pleased to present the inaugural Houston exhibition for Los Angeles based artist Brian Wills.  The exhibition will open on Friday, December 4, 2009 with an artist’s reception from 6:30-8:30pm and runs through Saturday, January 16, 2010.

Internationally known artist Brian Wills lives and works in L.A. Wills uses unconventional materials to investigate color and optics with rigor and disarming beauty.  The work is completely and meticulously hand-made.  He explores the intrinsic qualities of his materials.  String, wood and varnish are accessible yet fragile; and Wills is keenly aware of their spatial presence.  The repetition and labor evident in the multiple-piece constructions call attention to the process by which they were made.  The finished works are a stunning visual experience, almost sculptural in form, and surging with energy and requiring contemplation.

Brian Wills is a graduate of Denison and Harvard Universities.  His work has been included in numerous exhibitions in the US and abroad.  Recent shows include Themes and Variations at the Torrance Art Museum, Made in California, Selected Works from the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation and Consequence at Museum 52 in London, and exhibitions with Galerie Michael Janssen in Cologne and Gallery Min Min in Tokyo.

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CLUSTER

Andrea Bianconi

Richmond Burton

Debbie Han

Jenny Holzer

Dick Lodwig

Mie Olise

Anthony Shumate

Brian Wills

Artist Reception: Friday, October 23 from 6:30-8:30pm

Friday, October 23 – Saturday, November 28, 2009

Barbara Davis Gallery is proud to introduce four new artists to the gallery: two Los Angeles artists, Brian Wills and Debbie Han, San Francisco artist Dick Lodwig, and internationally known New York artist Richmond Burton.  The exhibition also includes artists Mie Olise, Andrea Bianconi, Jenny Holzer, and Anthony Shumate.  Cluster opens on Friday, October 23rd with an artists’ reception from 6:30-8:30pm, and runs through Saturday, November 28^th.

Internationally known Italian artist Andrea Bianconi lives and works in Milan and Brooklyn.  He will be residing in Houston for the next 3 months while working on a proposal for the Cartier Foundation in Paris.  Most recently his work has been exhibited in this year’s prestigious Tina B Contemporary Art Festival in Prague.  His work there included both an installation and performance.

Rice University Alumnus Richmond Burton lives and works in East Hampton.  Houston collector, Laura Peters describes him as, “divinely inspired” and with a “generous spirit… that expresses itself in his canvases.”   He has a sensitivity to the natural world and uses a dazzling display of color and form.  His work is exhibited internationally and included in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Art Institute in Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.

Debbie Han is a Korean-American artist whose work investigates idealized female beauty and the paradoxes of social and cultural systems in Eastern and Western cultures.  In her “Graces” series, she presents the bodies of present-day Asian women combined with classical western goddess heads.  Through the application of a meticulous digital rendering process to each figure, she creates a marble-like skin texture that creates a sculptural appearance.  The poses further emphasize the juxtaposition of the body and head of each figure as instead of classical Western poses, Han’s Graces capture distinct cultural gestures from everyday life in Asia.  The series subversively deconstructs the Eurocentric standardization of idea beauty and challenges the viewer to question the meaning of propriety, authenticity, and perception.

Renowned artist Jenny Holzer focuses on the use of language and ideas in public spaces.  Her Projection series are some of the most important works of her practice.  Through these works she shares the poetic inspiration she receives from specific sites.  Words are part of her artistic language and she depicts these phrases in these extraordinary works.

Dick Lodwig lives and works in Albany, California.  Through his multi-part monochrome abstractions he explores the relationship between painting and light, space and time.  He challenges the viewer to focus on subtlety and to lose himself in it.

Mie Olise is a Danish artist who completed the prestigious Skowhegan Residency this summer and will be participating in the ISCP Residency in New York this year.  In September a solo show of her work opened at the Skive New Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark for which Oliver Tschirky is writing the forward for the accompanying catalogue.  She has received much public acclaim including reviews in Art Forum and Art Review.

Houston artist Anthony Shumate has reinterpreted the Faberge egg using contemporary materials and context.  Historically, a Faberge egg is any one of the thousands of jeweled eggs made by the House of Faberge from 1885 through to 1917.  The majority of these were miniature ones that were popular gifts at Eastertide.  They would be worn on a neck chain either singly or in groups.  Shumate’s work is an examination of these classic icons with a contemporary twist.  They are intentionally contextualized in the current times, finances, and politics as were the originals.

Brian Wills lives and works in LA where he is represented by the internationally known gallery, The Happy Lion, on Chung King Road in Chinatown.  He is a graduate of Denison and Harvard Universities and his work has been included in numerous exhibitions in the US and abroad.  In this work his inspiration is the concept in Physics of String Theory that hypothesizes that everything is made of tiny vibrating strands of energy, or strings, instead of single zero-dimensional particles as previously thought.

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Celebrated Houston Artists Paul Fleming and Joe Mancuso will open their exhibitions with an Artists’ Reception on Friday, September 11, 2009 at Barbara Davis Gallery.

Paul Fleming: Sequences

Joe Mancuso: Lush Life

Friday, September 11 – Saturday, October 17, 2009

In his exhibition Sequences, Paul Fleming continues to push the boundaries of form through the use of 21st century materials.  His way of seeing the world always reflects a poetic sensibility that captures the wonderment of his subject.  By focusing on the microcosm and disassociating it from our preconceptions, he provides the viewer with a fresh perspective on his surroundings.

Joe Mancuso’s exhibition Lush Life is visually flamboyant yet discreet.  Both his sculpture and painting masterfully capture the essence and poetry of their subject.  The new body of work continues to expand on the tradition of still life, specifically focusing on nature, often flowers, as the artist’s starting point.  He explores the subject using inkjet prints, paint and concrete to produce paintings and sculptures that are aggressive and opulent yet retain a minimalist edge.

Please join us at Barbara Davis Gallery on Friday, September 11, 2009 from 6:30-8:30pm for an artist’s reception to celebrate these two innovative shows.

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The gallery is committed to showcasing a range of artistic ideas, processes and sensibilities.  The artists represented by the gallery respond to currents in contemporary art and culture.

Since opening in 1985, historically, Barbara Davis has introduced new ideas and a fresh vision to local, national, and international audiences.  Major shows have included emerging artists and internationally acclaimed artists, creating a context for a broad understanding and dialogue in contemporary visual art.

Barbara Davis Gallery was the first gallery to bring to Houston internationally known artists such as Merry Alpern, Tina Barney, Joseph Beuys, Ross Bleckner, Jonathan Borofsky, Gunther Forg, Adam Fuss, Rebecca Horn, Donald Lipski, Sally Mann, Yehudit Sasportas, Kiki Smith, and Juan Usle.

Barbara Davis Gallery has show a group of artists: Julie Mehretu, Shahzia Skander, and Satiago Cucullo who have come out of the prestigious Museum of Fine Arts Glassell School CORE residency program in Houston and have since gained international reputations.

A roster of Texas artists who are shown by the gallery includes: Paul Fleming, Paul Kittelson, Sharon Kopriva, Joe Mancuso, Brian Portman, Ann Stautberg, James Surls, and Robin Utterback.

Barbara Davis Gallery was one of the first Texas galleries to be included in the influential and prestigious Miami Basel art fair 2003.