Castle Gallery in Inverness will be presenting a solo exhibition by Joe Davie from 6-27 September 2008.

Joe Davie was a student of Glasgow School of Art during the 80’s, when testosterone and figurative painting seemed to go hand in hand. What is so different about Davie is the subtlety and ambiguity of his work.

Georgina Coburn (Freelance Arts Correspondent) has described his work as lyrical, enigmatic, edgy, dreamlike and compelling. She writes :

“Gently provocative Davie delights in the surreal juxtaposition of ideas and materials. The meeting of contradictory characters, cultures or visual elements such as colour, pattern or form, create intriguing dialogues in his work. Davie’s wonderfully ambivalent zinc and copperplate etchings, watercolours, oils on canvas and mixed media works inspire an imaginative response.

Admirably Davie treads his own path, grounded in the Scottish Figurative Tradition through his training at the Glasgow School of Art in the 1980’s. In this context his whole approach to the figure is brilliantly subdued and refreshing. He conveys a sense of the monumental and iconic not through obvious physical scale but in terms of human aspiration.

The figure of the pilgrim, soldier or shopper is a recurrent motif, part of the artist’s iconography and of archetypal significance. Davie utilises fragments of narrative and symbolic characters in a way that is relevant and contemporary. Use of loaded text or imagery is beautifully handled as the artist quietly interrogates the promotion and dominance of lifestyle based western consumerism.

The evolution of his work in painting, collage and printmaking demonstrate an adept understanding of the craft and the dynamic impetus of experimentation. Davie’s art explores contradiction rather than absolutes, his multilayered compositions works of extraordinary depth, irony and humour.”

JOE DAVIE - SOLO EXHIBITION of PAINTINGS, HAND-MADE PRINTS and MIXED MEDIA WORK
6 – 27 September, 2008 
Castle Gallery, Inverness
01473 729512
info@castlegallery.co.uk
Gallery open: Monday – Saturday 9.00 - 5.00 Admission free
www.castlegallery.co.uk