Sally Davies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sally Davies born in Winnipeg Canada 1956. She is a painter and photographer who lives and works in New York City.
She graduated from the Ontario School of Art and Design, New York City Program. She achieved her first public attention in New York in the mid ninety's, with her "Lucky Paintings" and "Lucky Chairs" exhibiting with the OK Harris Gallery and then the Gracie Mansion Gallery in New York's East Village. Following the Lucky Paintings she began her "tattoo paintings," "product paintings" and "furniture paintings," then moved onto photography with the "Alien photos" in 2000.
Davies paintings have been featured on HBO's "Sex and the City", Episode: The Cheating Curve, Ted Demme's film"200 Cigarettes,"' and her Lucky Chairs have been featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show and "Sex and the City." Her paintings are in the collections of Harvard Business School, Sarah Jessica Parker, Debra Winger, Michael Patrick King, Phil Scotti, Jane Holzer and others.
Her photographs of 9/11 can be found in "A Democracy of Photos," Scalo Press Zurich, Berlin, New York, Sept 2002. Other Photographs can be found in "Everyone Comes to Elaine's," A.E.Hotchner, Harper Collins Publishers, NY NY 2004, and Jim Cuddy's 2006 Solo CD "The Light That Guides You Home", Warner Music Canada.
Contents |
[edit] Review
LUCKY PAINTINGS
POSTCARDS FROM THE PLEDGE "Abandoning personal fetish objects, the newer work includes representations of goods which are generally desirable. It's about advertising and a lifestyle where Dodge Chargers and paintings by Andy Warhol or Roy Lichtenstein are equally emblems of high living. Davies icons are produced for contemporary patrons and a swank car or lear jet on canvas can serve the same function as medals of Saint Anthony." -Borderviews Magazine
'PARACHUTE MAGAZINE': Playful, irreverent, ironic, Sally Davies’ LuckyPaintings problematize the current tendency towards Neo-neo avant-garde, a trend emblematized by a seemingly never ending circuit of pretentious neo abstract expressionism and dull color field. New York may have gone gestural, but Davies has chosen to quietly interrogate the values of the contemporary cultural scene. Davies’ paintings are also deceptively simple – small-scale acrylics (9"x12") that grew out of playing card-sized, custom-made tokens of luck. Davies also takes up technologized culture as ruin; her medium is out and out kitsch. A native of Winnipeg, Canada, OCA educated, resident of New York City, Davies is uniquely situated to profit on the attraction of tackiness. The Lucky Paintings are souvenirs: visually saturated souvenirs of intense feelings – love, hope, fear – once had and now lost. The first Lucky Painting was made to comfort a friend who had run out of money. The paintings are all designed to be as gratifying. Each is the result of customization, each iconographically represents and discloses the dreams, the person objects, and the systems that bear meaning for, and nominate the identity of, the patron who commissioned the work. The reference then, is outside the frame, not in, ingeniously and melodramatically corporealized in kitsch’s traditionally syncretic terms. Lucky Painting No. 25b is intended – this is inscribed upon the canvas – "To Attract love" and contains a bottle of Chanel No.5, a high heeled shoe, a steaming apple pie, a heart pierced by the flaming dart of love, horseshoes and dice. Behind the banal appearance of things, however, lies a sympathetic magic: Davies’ images represent a personal idiom of the supernatural that is validated by the artist by means of a collaborative production process that is both nurturing and affirmative. Davies’ art does not invent things; it represents a return to fantasy, to caprice, to superstition via simulacra. It also represents a return to atavism and personal mythology. While the images are publicly symbolic and the inscriptions transcribe elements of a communal consciousness, each combination mediates a particular experience of time and space. Painting No.152 inscribed "to attract money and inspire original thoughts" bears the image of a woman painted according to Picassos cubist period as well as a tin of Campbell’s soup a` la Warhol; for the Canadian, Lucky Moose Painting No. 401, "for best results, always face painting north," features a moose against a snowy darkened sky. Since Davies is herself Canadian, the moose is semiotically and magically signatory. Davies’ art is devoted to "homework," the bodily and affective space of superstition, mysticism and familiarity. The practice suggests a certain vision of culture as a personal habitat whose material forms are the legacy of accumulated wisdom, bearing the trace of prior formulas and the impress of gestures shared by countless other individuals. Outside the habits of the body that give objects their shape and that create social spaces cluttered by personal accessories invested with meaning, then, there is the law of entropy. In the space that opens up beyond the art object, located metaphorically at Davie’s home, a dialogue is enacted between high and low, and the questioning of values in a system that both supports and interrogates hierarchical shifts.
-Susan Douglas / Parachute Magazine
Harvard Review: 2006 As Seen on Sex and the City … Sally Davies hits Aldrich By: Charmian Love (NF), A&E EditorSally Davies is a provocative artist. There is very little middle ground when it comes to her work - you either love her pieces and spend time trying to decipher the cryptic social commentaries, or you walk by without giving them a second thought. A little background on this artist, a suggested way to interpret the message, and some celebrity provenance, may make you pause at this series of three paintings on your travels in the basement of Aldrich.
Sally Davies was born in Canada, later moving to New York where she currently resides and paints. The works on display in Aldrich are entitled "Painting No. 538 (Movado Watch)," "Painting No.413 (Ralph Lauren Boot)" and "Painting No.749 (Eames Chair)." All three pieces, from a series she created in 1994, were donated by Gerald W. Schwartz (MBA 1970).
On the surface these works look like painted versions of advertisements you would see while flipping through product catalogues, complete with tag lines and promotional bubble commentaries. The framing, block lettering, cartoon-like outlines, and simple colorful backdrops are similar in technique to works by many graffiti artists.
There are a few trends that Davies is able to pull through in each of the paintings. The first is found in the basic titles that are used to set up the works of art as commodities. Each work is numbered with a description of the product being displayed, inserted as almost an afterthought. This gives us, the viewer, a hint about the frame of mind Davies wants us to be in when we start thinking about the message she wants to convey.
One's eyes are almost immediately drawn to the messages imbedded in the promotional labels that are imposed upon the image. In the case of "Painting No.749 (Eames Chair)," the largest and most overwhelming of the three paintings, the caption reads "to attract arty friends and improve your life." This is an ironic statement as the chair displayed looks far from comfortable and the least bit inviting. What it does allude to, however, is that by owning a chair, even if it is an uncomfortable chair designed by a label such as Eames, you can be raised to a sufficient level of acceptance by a certain group (your arty friends). So, you should buy one - as the advertisement (oops, I mean painting) instructs.
It's a pretty pretentious thought, which is exactly what Davies is trying to get at. Where does the value of the chair come from? Who decided that this is something that would attract arty friends? It also begs the question - if you were an Eames brand manager - is this how you would sell a chair?
Davies' work is powerful in its ability to make a viewer think about the value system at work in our society and the people who have control over it. I like these pieces because they mix Davies' complex commentary on cultural markers with a simple medium of communication inspired by basic marketing principles. It is a pretty engaging experience to have with a work of art.
But do not take my word for it. Davies has a huge celebrity following. Her works are hanging on the walls of some of Hollywood's biggest stars including Sarah Jessica Parker, Johnny Depp, Tim Burton, and Leonard Cohen. Sex and the City experts may also recognize her paintings from an episode set in character Charlotte's Art Gallery.
[edit] Solo Exhibitions
- 2000 "New Photographs" Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York City
- 2000 MTV Corporate Offices, New York City
- 1999 "Aliens in Art," Bucknell Center Gallery, Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA Curated by Stuart Horodner
- 1997 Gracie Mansion Gallery, New York City
- 1997 Robert Steele Gallery, New York City
- 1996 OK Harris Gallery, New York City
- 1994 Galerie Barbara Silverberg, Quebec, Canada
- 1993 OK Harris Gallery, New York City
[edit] Group Exhibitions
- 2004 "Incongruous Juxtapositions" Molly Barnes at Studio 18 NYC
- 2003 "The Minature Show", Graystone Gallery San Francisco
- 2002 "A Democracy of Photos" New York City 116 Prince St. New York, Ny 10012
- Troy ,NY Fulton Street Gallery, 408 Fulton Street
- Boca Raton Florida Atlantic University, 777 Glades Road
- Tampa Grand Court at International Plaza and Bay Street, 2223 n. West Shore Blvd.
- Louisville Louisville Public Library, 301 York Street
- Ohio Marietta College, Mcdonough Center, Andrews Hall
- Washington DC Corcoran Gallery of Art, 500 17th street n.w
- Zurich, Switzerland Zurich Kunsthaus, Heimplatz 1, 8001
- Tokyo, Japan Mitsukoshi, 1-4-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi, Chou-ku,
- Paris 85-87, Rue Du Faubourg-Saint-Martin
- Berlin, Germany Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, Niederkirchnerstrasse 7/Ecke Stresemannstrasse
- Dresden, Germany Dresdner Druck- und Verlagshaus - Saechsische Zeitung/ Haus der Presse Ostra-Allee 20, 01067
- Duesseldorf, GermanyNrw-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft, Ehrenhof 2,
- LondonThe Newsroom, the Guardian and Observer's New Archive, 60 Farringdon Road, EC1.
- 2001 "King Size," International Museum of Modest Arts. France
- 2001 "Flowers," Bodi Modern Art, Newport RI
- 2001 "How the west won," CMC Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
- 2000 "Miami 2000," Gracie Mansion Gallery
- "Posers and Impostors," Leo Burnett Ad Agency, Chicago
- 1999 "Shoes Shoes Shoes," Frederieke Taylor/TZ’ Art, NYC
- 1999 "From Head to Toe," Graystone Gallery, San Francisco
- 1999 "No Kidding-Visions of Childhood", Gracie Mansion Gallery, NYC
- 1998 "F.I.S.T.", Angelus Novus Project Gallery, Antwerpen, Belgium
- 1997 "No Small Feet", Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, Ill
- Art Santa Fe, (Gracie Mansion Gallery NYC)
- Art Chicago, (Gracie Mansion Gallery NYC)
- Gramercy International Art Fair, NYC (Gracie Mansion Gallery NYC)
- Gramercy International at Raleigh Hotel, Miami (Gracie Mansion Gallery NYC)
- 1996 Allan Stone Gallery, New York City
- "The American Chair", Pelham Art Center, New York City
- Gramercy International at Chateau Marmount Los Angeles,
- Gramercy International Art Fair, New York City (Gracie Mansion Gallery,NYC)
- Art Chicago, (Gracie Mansion Gallery, NYC)
- 1995 Westbeth Gallery, New York City
- Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida
- "A Celebration of the American Table ", American Craft Museum, NY
- Three Rivers Juried Art Competition, Pittsburgh, PA (1st Prize) Judge: Richard Flood, Chief Curator, Walker Museum
- 1994 Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, Florida
[edit] Elvis & Marilyn: 2X Immortal Show
Nov. 2/94 - Jan. 8/95 Boston Institute of Contemporary Art Feb. 4/95 - March 26/95 Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston April 15/95 - June 30/95 Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte North Carolina August 2/95 - Sept. 23/95 Cleveland Museum of Art Nov. 9/95 - Jan. 7/96 Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art Jan. 27/96 - March 23/96 Portland Museum April 14/96 - June 2/96 Philbrook Museum of Art June 22/96 - Aug. 19/96 Columbus Museum of Art Sept. 7/96 - Nov. 3/96 Tennessee State Museum Nov. 23/96 - Jan. 30/97 San Jose Museum of Art April 16/97 - June 8/97 Honolulu Academy of Art
[edit] In the Collections of
Jane Holzer / Sarah Jessica Parker / Harvard Business School / Debra Winger/Arliss Howard / Johnny Depp / Wolfgang Puck / Tim Burton / Joel Schumacher / Ted Demme / Susur Lee / Susan Toepfer / Lorenzo Carcaterra / Adrianna Trigiani / David Johnson Nine Inch Nails / Michael Patrick King / Dan Aykroyd / Illona Rich / Darren Starr / Sister Karol Jackowski / Leonard Cohen / Phil Scotti / Jim Cuddy / Joan Griffin /
[edit] Television and Film Coverage
30 Paintings featured in "Sex and the City" HBO TV Series "The Cheating Curve" in 1999. Larry King Live "Live with Denise Rich" 2 Photographs June 2001. BBC "Correspondant" Documentry; 9/11 Photos from book "A Democracy of Photos". "200 Cigarettes" Ted Demme 7 Paintings featured in Paramount Pictures Film 1999. Entertainment Tonight, April 1998 On Location for: "200 Cigarettes". Oprah Winfrey Show Lucky Chairs featured on, May 22 1995. CBC TV, Montreal Quebec, Canada May 1994.
[edit] Bibliography
'Everyone Comes to Elaine's A.E.Hotchner, Harper Collins Publishers, NY NY 2004, Page 76. Photo Italia, November 2002 "STATI UNITI SALLY DAVIES, Presenze extraterrestri nel sogno americano" pp. 56,57,58,59,60,61. "A Democracy of Photos", Scalo Press Zurich, Berlin, New York, Sept 2002, pp. 710 "Missing Brother" and pp. 711 "I Will Not Be Terrorized". CASA, Ryuko Tsushin, , April 2000, p.38,3. Sidewalk New York, Microsoft Network, April 7, 1999 "Weekend Planner, No Kidding: Visions of Childhood," Julie Caniglia. Loft, Mayer Rus and Paul Warchol, Monacelli Press, New York, New York, 1998 Page 106. Tattoo Review Magazine"Lucky Charm Art by Sally Davies" Dec. 1997 pp. 17, 18, 19, 20. Village Voice, listings, April 8 , 1997 Kim Levin. Interior Design Magazine "Forum" July 1997 pp.contents and pp.21-"Artist Sally Davies Comments on Design Icons". Hot Lava Magazine "Feature Artist Sally Davies " Sept. 1996, pp. 62, 63, 64. Interior Design Magazine "American Design Co." April 1996, P. 8, 105, 107. In Style Magazine, "Objects of Desire," June 1995, p.40. Border Crossings, "Postcards From the Pledge," Winter 1995, p 8. Elvis + Marilyn: 2 x Immortal, Geri DePaolo and Wendy McDaris.Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., New York, New York, 1994, p. 130. Parachute Magazine "Sally Davies/Franc Palaia," Susan Douglas, July/August/September, 1994, pp. 50 - 51.
[edit] External Links
