Archer Davies, Bazille’s Dream, 2023. Oil on linen, 138 x 148cm. Courtesy: the artist and MARS Gallery, Melbourne.

For these works Archer Davies has looked to disparate influences from the still life works of Edouard Manet, Jan van Eyck to film stills from 1970’s cinema to create a series of paintings that are linked by his interest in history and genre.

The work never seeks to express individual ideas but rather a kind of map of possible meaning, remaining open to interpretation, reaching back to the distant past while remaining connected to the contemporary.

Working from life is fundamental to the beginning of these works but that process is open to change. In some works scenes from films have been carefully re-created using Davies’ friends as models posing in the studio. In these pictures the original material is imbued with new meaning through the physicality of paint and the ancient process of cooperation between hand and eye, observation and the intimacy of painterly mark making.

Davies was born in the town of Maleny, Queensland. He graduated from the QLD College of Art in 2010. Since then he has traveled and painted consistently. His paintings have been exhibited at Jan Manton Art, Chapter House Lane Gallery, Seventh Gallery, Well Studio, Tokyo, Oigall Projects, Edwina Corlette Gallery and MARS Gallery. He has been a finalist in the Churchie National Emerging Artist Prize, the Kilgore, the Percival Portrait Prize and the Rick Amor Self-Portrait prize, among others. He was a co-founder of A-CH Gallery in Brisbane. Archer lives and works in Naarm/Melbourne.

Opening Event: Thursday 24 August, 6 – 8pm.

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