Los Angeles-based Australian artist Paul Davies will exhibit a new body of work, which repurposes his use of the stencil from figurative perspective, to deconstructed semi-abstract backdrops, at Olsen Irwin Gallery October 10.

The series comprises paintings and site-specific photograms inspired by the contrasting and epic nature of American landscapes, which Davies experienced first-hand on a road trip through California, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Nevada, via Route 66.

In contrast to these natural environments Davies employs neutral spaces of modern architecture using stencils that are hand cut by Davies, which derive from the artists’ own digital photographs. Elements of what the digital photograph documents are extracted from the place of origin and reimaged to build fictional, yet rational settings. Here Davies intends to draw a comparison between the stenciled silhouettes as formal elements in the paintings’ composition, and the open plan spaces of modern functionalist living. These elements move in and out of one another to collapse the space the stencil is intended to portray.

Date: October 10 2015
Location: Olsen Irwin Gallery, 63 Jersey Road,Woollahra, Sydney