Paul Davis: Joyous
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Joyous
New Work by Paul Davis at The Coningsby Gallery
Joyous is a new set of paintings executed on canvas and paper in quiet solitude by Paul Davis. Joyous because it was thus: the coastline between meaning and nonsense, a mental beach- its tide rhythmically ebbing and flowing; and you can swim in the waves but beware the undertow.
And all the while as your eyes dance about the canvas, your ears are full of the general background hum of the city; patronising tv commercials; talk radio; mobile shouters; thorax-rattling car sound systems; the perpetual roar of aircraft; buses, trains; mumbled announcements and your own internal voices: thoughts of the neutrino and the vastness of space, love, friendship, that din, that noisy turmoil droning unceasingly on.
Davis’s work embraces it all: it is a respite; a happy essay executed with joy.
“These paintings are like his brain: tangental and layered. They seem easy and abstract but there’s a furious thinking behind each one.” Dan Williams, artist
“I like most the blobby semi-featureless heads. Atavistic!” Adrian Shaughnessy, designer, writer
“Paul Davis is at heart a religious artist. All true artists are. There may be no promise of redemption in these altarpieces, but there is laughter, fear, confusion and a reminder of the hot saline taste and stick of ones own blood. All of which feels oddly purifying.” Hal Sumpter, psychiatric nurse
© Paul Davis 2013