The Cat Street Gallery is delighted to welcome back Australian painter Paul Davies for his third solo show at the gallery.
Blow-Up, referencing the 1966 film of the same name, is the latest series of works from Davies, based on photographs, memory and his signature abandoned architecture. As always, Davies’ works are devoid of human form, yet retain something of a voyeuristic nature, creating tension between the subject and its audience.
Featuring brand new sculptural works made from bronze, as well as an entirely new motif of interiors, the artist creates celebratory images - deftly colored and painted using delicate hand-cut paper stencils - of abstract environments. The paintings juxtapose the frozen ideals of domestic architecture with the universal natural environment, and investigate these sites as portraits of space. The works take inspiration from painterly, photographic and sculptural practices by artists such as: David Hockney, Jeffrey Smart, Peter Doig, Jon Cattapan and Rachel Whiteread.
Davies graduated from the College of Fine Arts UNSW, with a Major in Sculpture. Shortly after graduating from COFA in 2000 he discovered the graffiti and street art practices of Sydney based artists and began employing these techniques to the sculpture he had studied. Davies is currently studying a Masters by research at the College of Fine Arts, which investigates the relationship between the built and natural environment in his work.
