Biography
Born in Sydney. Studied National Art School and Julian Ashton’s School of Fine
Art, Sydney.
Lived in Northern Europe, 1960s, principally in Amsterdam and Berlin.
Influenced by the abstract expressionist movement and Willem De Kooning’s figurative, abstract
forms.
In his early thirties, Davis abandoned painting, intending to return to art after a year or
two, however, this was not to occur for another fifteen years. It was a further four years in 1989
before the artist held his first solo exhibition at David Ellis Fine Art Gallery in
Melbourne.
Davis’ return to art was marked by a commitment to figurative, expressionist art
and social comment centred around the Melbourne suburbs of Fitzroy and Collingwood.
In
1993 the artist returned to Europe for a further three years, living and working in Budapest
(Hungary), Tabor (Czech Republic) and Antwerp (Belgium) where he painted a new body of
work relating to his Hungarian and Czech experiences.
Since his return to Australia in 1996,
James Davis continues to paint social comment and social conscience art, as well as a new series
of garden paintings presented in a surreal manner. Close to his inner city Fitzroy home in
Melbourne, James Davis discovered similar darkness to old European cities. The artist sources his
material from the shadows - individuals spotted in the corner of bars, or in the hazy light between
lampposts in the late evening streets nearby. Davis avoids a didactic reading of his work. One can
see in terms of social discourse, a la Otto Dix’s German expressionism of WW1 or Goya’s
Disasters of War series. It is an uneasy line between fantasy and reality that Davis so
carefully treads - at one level his images are unerring reportage from dark corners of inner city
life, on another, peopled with characters with bird heads, elephantine trunks and painfully
elongated bodies. Yet despite their deformities, there is something sympathetic and decidedly
human about his cast of characters.
Davis has avoided the clichés of visual art fashion. He has
eschewed the movements of minimalism and postmodernism, opting instead for an individualistic
approach. If anything, Davis is indebted to painters such as Bosch and Bruegel. His work is
closely linked to British artists Ken Currie and Peter Howson, who both produce work of a
similar sentiment. Reference: Ashley Crawford, Art Visionary Magazine, October
2001
Education
1955-1958 Fine Art at The National Art School (formerly East Sydney
Tech), Sydney
1959-1960 Julian Ashton’s Art School, Sydney
Professional
Experience
1964-1968 Painted in Amsterdam and Berlin
1970 Ceased painting
1985
Resumed full-time painting
1993-1995 Painted in Europe Solo Exhibitions
1989 First solo
exhibition at David Ellis Fine Art Gallery, Melbourne
1990 David Ellis Fine Art Gallery,
Melbourne
1991 David Ellis Fine Art Gallery, Melbourne
1992 Holdsworth Galleries,
Sydney
1993 Lyall Burton Gallery, Melbourne
1995 Foy & Gibson Gallery, Melbourne
1998
Niagara Galleries, Melbourne
2001 Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
2001 Dickerson Gallery,
Sydney
2003 Qdos Gallery, Lorne
2003 Dickerson Gallery, Melbourne
2004 (January)
Gallery New Quay, Melbourne
2004 (September) Gallery New Quay, Melbourne
2005 Qdos
Gallery, Lorne
2008 Qdos Gallery, Lorne
Group Exhibitions
1960 Blake and Sulman
Prizes, Sydney early 1960s
1987 St Kilda Acquisition Prize, Melbourne
1990 Australian
Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
1990 Australian Contemporary Art Exhibition, AZ Gallery,
Tokyo
1990 Castlemaine Drawing Prize
1991 ‘Space Launch: Made in Fitzroy’, Fitzroy City
Art Space, Melbourne
1991 The Andrew and Lillian Memorial Prize for Drawing and Small
Sculpture, Queensland Art Gallery, Queensland
1992 Sulman Prize, Art Gallery of New South
Wales, Sydney
1992 David Ellis Gallery, Melbourne
1992 The R.M. Ansett Invitation Art
Prize
1992 Hamilton Art Gallery, Victoria
1992 Tattersall’s Club Invitation Art Prize,
Brisbane
1992 Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
1993 ‘Metropolis Now’ curated
by Mark Bayley, Penrith Regional Art Gallery, Sydney
1994 ‘Metropolis Now’ Manly Art
Museum, Sydney
1994 Australian Contemporary Art Fair, Melbourne
1996 Castlemaine
Drawing Prize
1998 ‘Luna Park and the Art of Mass Delirium’, Museum of Modern Art, Heide,
Victoria
2001 ‘Fantastic Art’, curated by Damian Michaels, Orange Regional Gallery,
NSW
2003 ‘Fantastic and Visionary Art’ (an Orange and Regional Gallery Touring Exhibition)
Global Arts Link, Ipswich, Queensland
2004 ‘Fantastic and Visionary Art’ Ballarat Fine Art
Gallery
2004 ‘Fantastic and Visionary Art’ Parramatta, NSW
Collections
Australian
National Gallery, Canberra
Victorian National Gallery, Melbourne
Ballarat Regional Gallery,
Victoria
Bendigo Regional Gallery, Victoria
Castlemaine Gallery, Victoria
State Library of
Victoria, Melbourne
Queensland State Gallery, Brisbane
Gladstone Art Gallery,
Queensland
Private collections in Japan, Holland, Germany, Hong Kong, Canada, USA,
Hungary and extensive collections in Australia Bibliography
1994 Alan and Susan
McCulloch, The Encyclopaedia of Australian Art, 1994
1994 Max Germaine, Artists and
Galleries of Australia Vol I, Craftsman House
1989 Otis Rush, July, review by Kris
Hemensley
1989 ‘Hell and Purgatory on Gertrude Street’, Melbourne Times, 18 July
review
1989 ‘In the Picture’, The Age, 25 July, review
1989 Fitzroy: Melbourne’s First
Suburb, cover
1990 The Age, 13 July, review by Jan Blensdorf
1991 ‘Correspondences’,
Queensland Art Gallery, catalogue notes by Clare Williamson,
1991 ‘The Good Oil on Fitzroy’,
Melbourne Leader, 12 October, review
1991 Gary Disher, Flamingo Gate, cover
1992 The
Sydney Morning Herald, “Black Images from a Migrant Childhood” 30 October, review by
Bronwyn Watson
1992 The Australian, 31 October, review by Elwyn Lyne
2001 The Age, 13
October, review by Robert Nelson
2001 The Age, December, ‘Visual Arts: year in review’
review by Robert Nelson
2001 Art Visionary Magazine, October, article by Ashley
Crawford
2003 The Age, March, ‘Nexus’ Diary: Susannah McGregor
2004 The Sunday Age,
February, ‘James Davis: new work’ review by Ashley Crawford
2004 The Age, February, ‘Of
dreams and fantasy’ review by Megan Backhouse
2004 The Age, 9 October, ‘The Humour and
the Horror’ review by Dewi Cooke
2005 Herald Sun, 10 January, ‘Street Life’s Inner Soul’
Felicity Allen
2008 Herald Sun, 25 January, ‘Colour back after dark days’, Harbant Gill